All Too Well
by ohsnapxitsemyy
Summary: Lavender Brown considered herself to have an ordinary life, ordinary dreams, ordinary fears. But, as the years of reading the same message in the tea leaves continues to eat away at her, Lavender has been forced to confront that she may not be ordinary at all. She may, perhaps, be the missing link to a tale of lovers lost long ago. Sequel to In the Name of Being Honest, canon.
1. Chapter 1

**Alright everyone! Here we go!  
SO excited to finally get this started.  
Please leave reviews, tell me what you think so far, and most of all, enjoy the sequel to In the Name of Being Honest!**

The heavy rain pitter-pattered against the roof of the one-bedroom cottage just as it's resident settled into his corner chair, a book grasped lightly in his hand. He sighed contently, gazing out onto the wet street as cars sped past the window and pedestrians clad with rain boots and umbrellas hurried along the pavement.

It was the one place Remus Lupin could find to live. In the middle of a muggle neighborhood where there wasn't much of a chance to be recognized by his peers. It wasn't well known that he was a werewolf, but the people that did know were quick to usher their children away from him. It had been quite some time, though, since that had happened, indicating that their children were grown enough that they were no longer the age that needed to be ushered.

He was just about to take a sip of the hot tea with honey he had just made, perfect for a chilly and rainy summer evening, when there was a sharp tap on the door. Furling his brow, Remus clapped his book shut and set his mug down on the side table next to him.

He headed toward the door, stopping briefly to stare through the peek hole (an unfortunate habit he had picked up from his duration involved in the first wizarding war). His eyebrows raised in surprise as he spotted the headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, standing on the stoop of his home.

"Professor Dumbledore-" he started, but he was interrupted by the old wizard, who had just put his hand gently into the air.

"I believe you have been out of school long enough for Albus to be sufficient," he chuckled, as he gestured past the doorway, "though the coattails of my robes are getting quite soggy and it would be nice to be out of the rain for a bit."

Remus jumped quickly, ushering the headmaster into his small cottage. "Please, Albus," he paused, an awkward thought passed his mind as he had never called the professor anything BUT professor, "take a seat and make yourself at home." He rushed to the couch, pushing the blankets off to the side. "Can I get you anything to-to drink?"

"Thank you, Remus, that's quite generous of you," Dumbledore replied as he sank onto the couch. Remus scratched the back of his head, suddenly embarrassed by the raggedy state of his home. "But I just had a drink with Hagrid and Madam Rosmerta not even 20 minutes ago. Please, sit."

Remus collapsed into his arm chair, his left leg shaking anxiously under the sudden scrutiny of him old headmaster. He hadn't had much contact with the man since his best friend, Haley, died nearly 13 years old. He shook his head in an attempt to rid the thought from his memory. "What's his about, Prof-erm-Albus?"

Dumbledore surveyed him over his half-moon spectacles, folding his hands delicately into his lap. "It seems we have come across a need for a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Our last one now residing in a long-term amnesiac ward." Remus furrowed his brow with concern, but the headmaster kept talking. "I know of your previous experience in the war, as well as the work you did for me with various werewolf packs around the country. My hope is that you would fill that position for us."

Remus's eyes widened, breaking contact with Dumbledore's. On one hand, he had always wanted to get into education. Being a professor was something he could only dream of. On the other hand… "Albus, I'm- I'm a werewolf. How would the families react to their children being taught by-by someone like me?"

Dumbledore merely smiled, his eyes twinkling over his spectacles. "Remus, you have paved the way for werewolf children to be integrated into school, allowing them to make friends their own age, have a family outside of their parents and siblings. Continue to pave the way for them, show them that anything is possible."

"Albus, what happens when I turn? Where would I go? Back to the shrieking shack?"

The headmaster smiled knowingly again. "There have been many, many advancements concerning the use of Wolfsbane potion. You would, of course, have unlimited access to this particular potion every month."

Remus raised his eyebrows. He had struggled to afford the wolfsbane potion over the past few months. Having unlimited access to it would mean he wouldn't be in pain, wouldn't be afraid of the transition, and wouldn't need to fear what would happen if he got loose from his home.

The offer was quite tempting.

Tempting enough that, three months later, he was gearing up to teach his first class. His fellow professors had been welcoming, especially the ones that had taught him nearly twenty years go. Severus Snape, however, seemed to be less than ecstatic that he was being forced to make the Wolfsbane Potion every month.

Remus had even wondered if Severus would poison him at some point during the school year.

Things were going as well as they could have been. Better than they had been in years, in fact. His first lesson with Harry Potter was coming up and that was the thing he was looking forward to the most. Meeting his best friend's son. He had sighed in sadness, thinking briefly back on what could have been.

He shook the thought out of his head as the students filtered in. He had boggarts planned for the first day, one had taken up residence in the teacher's lounge. Something fun, something easy to get them engaged back into schoolwork.

Much to his surprise, it wasn't Harry Potter that caught his eye, but a petite girl with curly blonde hair. She was chatting animatedly with a set of twins and a boy with an Irish accent, her brown eyes flicking across the teacher's lounge, clearly amused that she was in a part of the castle she wasn't usually supposed to be in. She locked eyes with him and smiled, a dazzling smile that he hadn't seen in 13 years. 13 years since Sirius Black had been tossed into Azkaban.

There wasn't any way it was possible, Remus had thought to himself, Nora was stolen by the death eaters. More than likely dead merely hours after her mother. He was seeing things, he decided, he was making things up in his head again, because it was painful to be back in the castle after all of these years.

It was painful to remember Haley lazing by the lake near the end of the school year or how Sirius stood by his side in the Shrieking Shack whenever he was getting ready to turn at the full moon. It was painful to remember that they had made this perfect child, one that Remus adored more than his own life itself, and neither of them were able to share it with her for nearly long enough.

It was painful, because Remus thought that Haley was perhaps the best friend he had ever had. She deserved the world and all she was awarded was death.

…..

Albus Dumbledore had asked Remus to swing by his office a few weeks into term, just wanting to check in to see how he was handling the change of career. It was clear that Remus was one of the favorite teachers around the school already, allowing the students to be more hands on with their education.

A different perspective was something that Albus always looked forward to when it came to education.

Remus, however, had something else on his mind when he went to visit the headmaster that day. He knew he wasn't crazy, having had Lavender Brown in his classes for a few weeks now. Her mannerisms, her facial expressions, the way she cocked her eyebrow the same way Sirius did when she was challenged. They were all too familiar. He needed to know.

"Prof-Albus," Remus started that afternoon after their discussion on lesson plans and testing scors, still not quite used to calling the headmaster by his first name yet, "I actually had something- erm- quite off the topic to ask you about."

Dumbledore waited patiently for him to go on. Remus blew out his cheeks before continuing. "There is a third year in my class. Lavender Brown. I…I know it isn't possible. There's no way she could be- she could be-" he paused, shaking his head. He felt crazy, even saying the words out loud. "She looks like the spitting image of Haley Brams, sir." He rubbed his forehead as he finished the sentence, embarrassed now that he had even brought it up. Maybe Severus WAS poisoning his potion.

Dumbledore remained quiet for a moment, staring at the young professor with a thoughtful gaze. "I was wondering what I would say to you if the topic was breeched." He sighed, shifting his eyes to his desk. "Part of me was hoping you wouldn't notice. That she would get through the rest of her years at Hogwarts without recognition."

Remus's heart pattered frantically against his chest. "What exactly are you saying, Albus? That Lavender Brown is, in fact…" He trailed off, afraid to say the words out loud. He didn't want to get feel the hope burst through his heart.

Albus sighed again, nodding his head. "Yes, Lavender Brown is Nora Black. Haley had come to me with her shortly after Alice and Frank were tortured to insanity. She was afraid that the death eaters would come for her. She was right."

Remus leapt out of his seat, pacing back and forth in the circular office. "Albus, but…why wouldn't Haley tell me she was putting Nora into hiding?" He paused in front of the desk, flattening his hands so he was leaning forward over it. "She knew how much I loved that little girl, she knew that I would have done anything to protect her."

"Haley didn't want anyone to know for both their protection and her protection." Albus sighed again, the wariness of age showing for the first time since the First War ended, "with Sirius breaking out of Azkaban, we need to do everything in our power to make sure Nora stays hidden. We don't know what, or who, he is after. As far as Sirius is concerned, his daughter died the day Haley died."

Remus nodded his head, understanding where the professor was coming from. That still didn't take away the pep in his step and the smile on his face as he watched Nora Black, now Lavender Brown, stream into the classroom with her pupils the next day.

It gave him hope. Haley Brams, his best friend, lived on.


	2. Chapter 2

**You guyssssss! Thank you so much for all the reviews and the PMs for the first chapter of this sequel. I am SO excited to get back in the writing game and see where this one goes.  
Just as a reminder…this is a collection of snippets of a few years of Lavender's life before we get into the meat of the story, which will be her seventh year at Hogwarts. I wanted to give you an idea of how I saw Lavender in regards to the sequel, so you had a basis of where this is going.**

 **As always, you rock! Read, review, and enjoy!**

Lavender Brown blinked her eyes open, squinting against the rays of the sun that streamed through the window next to her bed. The light was still faint, indicating that it was still quite early in the morning. She hopped out of bed, scrambling her bare feet against the cool floor of the dormitory.

Both Hermione and Parvati were snoring softly, nestled deep within the comforters of their beds. Lavender, however, was on a mission.

Pinning her necklace around her neck, the gold chain with the locket that had NB etched into it, she pulled a bag of loose tea leaves and an ornate tea cup from her trunk, clambering back to her bed, and sat cross legged on the thick mattress.

"Augamenti," she muttered, watching the hot water stream into the tea cup from the tip of her wand. Sticking her tongue between her teeth, she carefully poured some of the loose tea leaves into the cup. "Let it sit for two minutes, swirl around 3 times with my left hand, drink until all that is left is the dregs, turn the cup upside down on the saucer," she whispered to herself as she watched the tea leaves fall to the bottom of the small mug.

Although Lavender was half way into her third year, she very much enjoyed the first few lessons that Divination had to offer those many weeks ago. She knew the majority of her classmates would sneer at the odd professor, but the bangles, long flowy shawls, and wide-rimmed glasses of Professor Trelawney drew Lavender in.

It didn't hurt that Trelawney had successfully predicted the death of her pet bunny. After the initial shock and grief wore off, she was intrigued by the practice.

Which is why, on a Friday morning, she sat cross-legged on her bed with a small mug of brewing tea in her hand.

"Swirl around 3 times with my left hand," she whispered as she carefully swirled the tea, being careful not to spill the hot beverage into her lap. She had been less careful only once before. Once the tea settled back into the mug, she tipped it to her lips, closing her eyes and letting the hot drink slid down her throat.

"All that is left is the dregs," she whispered one more time, pushing her blonde, curly hair over her shoulder. She flipped the cup onto the saucer, waiting less than a minute for the liquid to drain away. She peered into the cup, her Divination book splayed out in front of her. "Damn," she whispered, shaking her head in disappointment. "I must STILL be doing it wrong." The dregs were the same as they had been when she started practicing her tea leave readings.

Family secret and betrayal.

The leaves must be wrong, she conferred with herself, or she's still doing the reading wrong. Professor Trelawney hadn't said anything negative about her technique. As a matter of fact, she frequently used Lavender as an example to her peers.

But a family secret? Betrayal?

Her family didn't have any secrets. The only odd thing that came from her family was the locket that Lavender had pinned around her neck at all times of the day. While her mother never told her exactly how she came into its fortune, she felt rather connected to it and decided when she was young that she would continue to wear it "for good luck."

…..

The locket still adorned her neck 3 years later when Lavender was just starting her sixth year at Hogwarts. She gazed at it in the mirror of her bedroom, cocking her head to the side as she surveyed herself. She flicked her eyes over to the picture she had taped to the corner of the vanity, a picture of her and her parents on their recent vacation to the south of France shortly after You-Know-Who was confirmed to be back in power.

Her parents, both straight-haired brunettes with light eyes, were grinning widely at the camera. She was stuck in the middle of them, with her curly blonde locks and dark, brown eyes, also smiling. She always thought it rather odd that she didn't look like either of her parents, but they just chalked it up to strong genetics from years past.

Her nose, her smile, her eyes. Nothing seemed to be familiar between the three of them.

She pounded down the stairs, pausing in the living room to give her father a kiss on the cheek. She continued her venture into the kitchen, pausing one more time to give her mother a kiss on the cheek before pulling down a mug from the cupboards above her.

"What are you doing- oh, Lavender, not again."

"Mum," she stated matter-of-factly, stealing the hot water her mother had just brewed for herself and pouring it into the cup, "Now that I've passed my OWLS in all the classes YOU wanted-" She poured some tea leaves into the mug following the steaming water, "-I can start to focus on the classes that I want. Divination, Transfiguration, Charms-" She picked up the mug and swirled it around 3 times with her left hand.

"Darling, you know that we want you to just be happy," her mum replied exasperatedly, "but you've been doing the same trick with the mug for YEARS now."

Lavender rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "It isn't a trick, mum, it's Divination. And besides-" She paused to drink the tea in one foul swoop, allowing the dregs to settle back to the bottom of the cup before flipped it quickly onto the saucer. "-This is the only one I just can't seem to get…damn it."

Family secret and betrayal. The same exact tea readings for the last 3 years.

She sighed. "I give up for today. I'm meeting Seamus and Parvati at Diagon Alley in a bit for some school shopping anyways." She saw her mother's eyes flick nervously toward her father, who had just walked into the room. "Mum. Relax. It's going to be fine. You-Know-Who isn't going to be waltzing into The Leaky Cauldron."

…..

School had been in action for a few months now when Lavender finally sighed in frustration, breaking down at the end of her NEWT level Divination class.

"Professor," she whined, sinking back into her pouf after successfully gazing into the crystal ball for the last hour, "I'm having such a hard time with my tea leaves. I've been practicing and practicing-" Parvati settled down next to her, placing her elbows on the round table that sat in front of them.

The professor looked mildly surprised, though she always seemed to look mildly surprised. "My dear, your third eye is quite open, I very highly doubt you're truly having-"

"She really is, professor," Parvati cut in, taking a deep breath, "she's been getting the same message in the tea leaves for YEARS. Family secret and betrayal." Lavender clutched at the locket around her neck, a nervous habit she had picked up through the years.

Trelawney rose from her own pouf, grabbing her wand and a tea mug from the shelf behind her. She gently set the mug on the table before pointing her wand and muttering "augamenti." The hot water streamed into the cup as Lavender picked up the tea leaves and sprinkled them in.

"Swirl it around three times, that's a girl," the professor began as Lavender picked up the mug, doing as she had been practicing for years. "Now drink the tea until only the dregs remain." Lavender swallowed back the liquid before setting the cup upside down onto the round table in front of her. The professor flipped it back over once the tea had drained. "What do you see?"

Parvati and Lavender nearly conked heads as they rushed to lean over the small china that sat before them. Parvati gasped in horror, reeling back quickly to stare at Lavender with wide eyes. "The GRIM?! Lav, that's the first time I've ever seen your tea leaves change!" Lavender returned her stare, her heart pattering frantically against her chest. She couldn't have the grim, it was impossible.

Professor Trelawney peered into the cup after the two girls, tilting her head from side to side as to get different perspectives of the shapes in the tea leaves. The two sixth years went quiet, watching her closely as she came to her conclusions. "These symbols here and here represent betrayal and a family secret being kept, just as you had seen before. But this symbol here-" She pointed toward the grim-shaped symbol- "I'm wary to say it is actually the grim."

Lavender could tell Parvati was having a hard time from rolling her eyes. "Professor," she stated matter-of-factly, "there is no way that isn't the grim. Look at the shape of its head, the chest area."

"Ah," Trelawney interjected, waving her hands in front of her, "but see the shape here and here. Not quite characteristic of the grim itself." She turned to Lavender. "What is the question you're asking the tea leaves as your swirl the cup with your left hand?"

Lavender caught eyes with Parvati, embarrassed that she would have to utter the words out loud. Parvati, who knew the turmoil going on inside her best friend's heart, merely leaned over and placed a comforting hand on her arm. "Erm- about my family…essentially." She hadn't wanted to admit her parental doubts.

"Maybe that's the information you should be seeking," she retorted, peeling away from the table and walking toward her personal rooms, indicating that the lesson was done for the day.

…..

It was weeks later when, after spending hours in the library scouring through tea leaf articles and books, that Parvati had a thoughtful break-through.

"What if," she said, grabbing ahold of Lavender's forearm with enthusiastic force, "what if what Professor Trelawney saw in Harry Potter's tea leaves third year wasn't the grim at all. What if it was the same thing she's seeing in your tea leaves now?"

Lavender pondered over it for a moment, wondering what the connection could possibly be. "I'll entertain that," she replied after the pause, nodding her head, "How do we somehow find out if there is a connection between Harry and I?"

Parvati leaned back into her chair and shrugged. "Erm- could just ask him?" She shook her head, answering her own question before Lavender had the opportunity. "No, you don't want it getting back to your parents that you're poking around like that." She grinned mischievously as a thought popped into her head. "Sidle up to Ron Weasley."

Lavender scrunched her nose and shook her head. "What? Ron Weasley? I mean…Parvati, you know how I feel about Seamus. It wouldn't be right to just-"

Her best friend leaned forward once again, placing her elbows on the table. "Seamus will still be there, feeling the same way he does about you now. How much do you want to know about the tea leaves?"

It wasn't even a week later that Lavender worked up the guts to kiss Ron Weasley after his first quidditch match, sending the packed common room into a frenzy. She didn't even notice, in her attempts to gain the trust of The Chosen One's best friend, that Hermione burst out of the common room in tears.

…..

 _Parvati,_

 _We both know this isn't working. Ron clearly doesn't know anything. I'm doubting very much that Harry knows anything either. It hurts me to see Seamus in such a bad way, you know how I care about him. I think this is a dead end._

 _How do I get this boy to break up with me?_

 _I've sent him that hideous necklace for Christmas. I've snogged him every chance of gotten (in public even!) to make him embarrassed. I've called him pet names. I've attempted to talk to Harry about our relationship, which I thought would work immediately. It's an impossible task!_

 _Lav_

…..

It had taken Lavender another month, at least, since returning to school from the holidays to find a way to get Ron to end the relationship with her. More than anything, she just didn't want to seem like the bad guy.

However, once Ron had made up with Hermione and they were spending more and more time together, it was apparent that the relationship was coming to an end, much to the gratefulness of Lavender herself.

It wasn't until she saw him leaving the common room with Hermione that she finally bucked up the courage to end their mirage of a relationship. At least that's how she saw it.

Much to her dismay, after breaking up with Ron, she cried. Cried for Seamus, whom she had feelings for since 4th year when they started to really get to know each other. Cried for her family, whom she had a gut instinct that they were hiding something from her. More than anything, she cried for herself, for feeling guilty and afraid that her small family wasn't enough for her, and for getting her hopes up that she could finally make out what was being left in the tea leaves.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone! Thank you so much for the feedback on the last chapter. A few of you were concerned with how quick it felt. I have to agree- the scene cutting in and out is NOT my writing style, therefore it was difficult for me to get a proper flow going. Rest assured, that's the only chapter that will be written like that!**

 **As always, you all rock. I hope you're enjoying it so far! Read, review, and enjoy!**

 **September 1997**

Lavender woke from her slumber, stretching widely out in all directions. She sighed, glancing at the clock next to her bed, sweat beginning to pool on her forehead. It was the first time since beginning at Hogwarts that she was not looking forward to going. In fact, she wanted to stay in her warm bed and lock the door, pretending the war just outside of her bedroom walls wasn't happening.

It was fun and games when she had joined Dumbledore's Army in her fifth year, something to pass the time and use as a tool to rebel against Umbridge, but now…now it was too real.

She dressed quickly, deciding to pull her blonde hair into a messy bun at the top of her head. Staring into the mirror, she sighed to herself. She was lucky to have Parvati and Seamus, otherwise she feared she wouldn't have a single person in her life that knew how she felt about herself.

She merely pretended to be ditzy, to be outgoing and wild. On the inside, whenever she looked in the mirror, all that stared back at her was a lost soul, a girl trying to find her way through the field of life.

That was enough introspection, she decided, sighing one more time before throwing her knapsack over her shoulder and heading down the staircase.

"We shouldn't even be letting her go," her mother was saying as Lavender neared the threshold to the kitchen, dumping her knapsack just outside, "this entire war is just…she should be home with us, Roger. She shouldn't be-"

"Pam, we have to let her go back so school," her father interjected, exasperated. It was clear it wasn't the first time they have been having this conversation, "she could be hunted down, we could go to prison. We have nothing to hide."

"We have everything to-" She began saying, but as Lavender entered the room she clamped her mouth tightly shut. Her father watched her reproachfully, glancing up over the top of The Daily Prophet.

She was slightly intrigued by the conversation at hand, but something else caught her eye, making her forget. "Professor Snape was named headmaster?" Lavender asked in confusion, furrowing her brow as she stared at the front page of the newspaper.

"Just made the headlines today," her father replied, setting the paper down onto the table and taking a sip of coffee. "Two known death eaters have taken positions there as well. Dark Arts and Muggle Studies, after that professor went missing near the beginning of summer."

"Never in our days at Hogwarts," her mother replied, shaking her head as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, "Not if Dumbledore was still there."

It was quiet around the kitchen, the only sound being the water dripping down from the faucet over the sink. There were no doubts in anyone's mind that the war would be going much differently had it not been for Dumbledore's untimely death.

Roger took the final swig of his coffee, setting the mug and the newspaper down onto the table. "Well, young lady, we need to get you to King's Cross Station. Do you have everything packed? Have your mug and tea leaves?"

Lavender went through the list in her head while she rolled her eyes, mentally checking off everything she had packed between her trunk and the knapsack. "Yes, I believe so. Anything I forget you can just owl to me, including the mug and tea leaves if they get lost in my trunk."

It was a mere few minutes later they had loaded up the car that her father had bought for pretenses in his muggle job. It was nearly 45 minutes later that she had crossed the threshold onto Platform 9 ¾ and was jumped on by her best friend and roommate, Parvati Patil.

"Did you hear the news- Bye Mr. and Mrs. Brown!" she called over her shoulder as she snaked her arm into the crook of Lavender's elbow, "it's been in the Daily Prophet the last couple of days."

Lavender dumped her trunk in the pile of luggage near the back of the train, uncrossing her arm from Parvati's to board the train. "Do you mean the news of Snape becoming headmaster?" She elbowed her way through a group of second years, looking for an empty compartment that they could take over. "I saw that in the Prophet this morning."

Parvati's eyes widened as she followed her best friend up the corridor of the train. "No, I didn't hear that news. That oily, little-" She sighed. "I digress. No, I meant the news concerning the muggle-born registry that was released a few days ago? Hermione Granger was publically called in for questioning. Do you think she would go? She's always been one to abide by the rules."

Lavender shook her head, opening the door to an empty compartment halfway up the Hogwarts Express. "Highly doubtful, my love. Her best friend is Undesirable Number One. Besides, solely between the sorcerer's stone first year and starting Dumbledore's Army fifth year, something tells me she isn't nearly as locked-tight as we may think she is."

Parvati collapsed onto the bench across from Lavender, nodding her head in agreement. "Yes, I suppose you are right." She dug through her bag, pulling out a sugar quill. "I'm surprised my parents even let me and Padma come back to Hogwarts this year. They were very much considering shipping us to India to finish schooling with our cousins."

"I wouldn't say that too loud," Lavender replied, her eyes scooting to the compartment door as Seamus entered, her heartbeat picking up oh-so-slightly, "though my mom was in arguments with my father all summer about allowing me to come back as well."

Seamus locked eyes with her, his green eyes locking with her brown ones. "The only reason me mam let me come back to school was because I'm a half-blood. Dean couldn't come back either, he went into hiding." The train let out its final horn before the engine kicked in, sending steam streaming past the window of the compartment. Parents outside began waving at their children, who had stuck their heads out of the windows to say their goodbyes.

"Hogwarts isn't going to be the same at all," Parvati sighed. "Especially with that bat-winged joke as a professor-"

The compartment door rolled open again before Neville poured in, tripping over the threshold as the train lurched forward to leave the station. He nearly fell forward onto the floor between the three friends, but caught himself on Lavender's shoulder, who squealed out in surprise. "I'm glad I found someone friendly on this train," he said, sending an apologetic smile toward Lavender, who was now rubbing her tender shoulder. "I was caught in the hallway by Malfoy who tried to dock points, because my shoe was untied."

Luna floated in behind him, her nose stuck in the creases of the Quibbler, the only magazine that Lavender had seen openly criticize the dramatic takeover of the Ministry by You-Know-Who and his followers. Ginny wasn't too far behind her, sending Lavender a look of general disgust as she crossed her arms across her chest.

The compartment felt suddenly very full with the addition of Ginny, who had made it known she disliked Lavender since the break-up of her and Ron.

Parvati, who had sensed the change in atmosphere between Lavender and Ginny, quickly pulled out a deck of Exploding Snap cards, challenging both Seamus and Ginny to a game. Lavender took the opportunity to stare from the window, watching the impending storm clouds move over the fields filled with sheep. She hoped that wasn't an omen for the school year to come.

…..

There were whispers that shuttered through the throngs of students as Professor Snape made his way to the podium that, just last year, Dumbledore had donned for the beginning of the year speech. Lavender had a feeling the quirkiness hadn't been passed on from headmaster to headmaster.

"Students, as we gather at the tables before the feast," Snape started, drawling out the words in the most monotone voice he could possibly muster, "it's important to get a few documented changes clear. Muggle Studies and Dark Arts will be mandatory lessons, taught by new professors Alecto and Amycus Carrow respectively." He paused as if he were waiting for the usual applause that accompanied the introduction of new professors. The Carrow siblings glowered at the crowd when it didn't come.

"Lav!" Seamus hissed from behind her, covering up the continued speech that Snape had begun to drawl out once again, "Lav! Did you here- Alecto is taking over for that Muggle Studies professor that went missing over the summer."

Lavender furrowed her brow, turning toward one of her best friends. "A death eater taking over Muggle Studies? What's that going to be about?"

Seamus shrugged, eyeing the empty plates in front of him as if he couldn't wait for the speech Snape had to be over. "I can't imagine it's going to be-"

"CRUCIO!"

The sudden shout, accompanied with the crack of the red jet that embedded itself into the wooden table an inch from Seamus's hand, made the vast majority of the students' jump. Lavender locked eyes with Seamus, stunned.

"You got somethin' to say, boy?" The professor, Alecto Carrow, shouted over the shoulder of the new headmaster, "you got somethin' so important to say that it interrupts the _headmaster_." The last word was said with such a sneer that it was no doubt a slight against Snape.

Lavender quickly shook her head, but Seamus had already raised his voice. "Yeah, I do, ma'am. When are we gonna eat? I'm starving over here." There was a very pregnant pause that circulated the Great Hall, the students whipping their gaze back and forth between the two as if they were watching a rather intense tennis match. Lavender noticed that even McGonagall's face drained of color, her lips parted in shock.

Alecto seemed beside herself that a student had talked back to her so early in the year. "DETENTION!" she replied back with such force that the first years near the front of the tables shook in fright. "You disrespect me; you disrespect the Dark Lord." She shot another curse at Seamus, who ducked in time for it to bounce off the stone floor and into a piece of the Ravenclaw bench.

Lavender and Parvati glanced at each other, not sure how to react to the situation at hand. It was clear, she thought, that this was going to be a very different Hogwarts than they had anticipated.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello everyone!  
I hope you're having a great week so far! I'm so happy to be getting such positive feedback for this story, please keep it up! I've seen a couple of reviews about it, so I thought I would say that yes, you are right, All Too Well and In the Name of Being Honest are from the same Taylor Swift song! I like my sequel titles to be a derivative from the original story. I'm impressed so many of you caught on!**

 **Anyways, read, review, and enjoy!**

Lavender entered the Great Hall on the first official day back to school, her schedule clenched tightly in her fist. Her heart had sunk when she peered over the classes she had been assigned- Transfiguration, Divination, Charms, Dark Arts, and Muggle Studies. It was clear that Snape was in no joking mood when he announced that the latter two classes would be mandatory.

She hitched her bag higher onto her shoulder, pushing her way through the crowd of excited first years as she made her way to the seat that Seamus had saved for her at the Gryffindor table.

"Did you hear the news?" Seamus asked, excitedly shoving the latest copy of the Daily Prophet under her nose. She pulled away, gingerly taking the newspaper from him. "Harry Potter, infiltrated the Ministry!" He let out a whoop. "Right under You-Know-Who's nose!"

She perused over the headline "Undesirable Number One spotted in the Ministry of Magic" before skimming the article, her eyebrows shooting dangerously high toward her hairline. "What in the world was he doing?" she asked, handing the newspaper over to Neville, who had been reading it hungrily over her shoulder. "He could have been killed!"

"He's the Chosen One!" Seamus responded with an ear-to-ear grin. "He must have been looking for something, that's the only reason we can think of."

Lavender shook her head, still quite abashed by the news that had begun to spread like wildfire through the throngs of students. Even Luna, who rarely had anything in her hands besides the latest issue of the Quibbler, was seated at the Ravenclaw table with the Daily Prophet propped up on a pitcher of pumpkin juice.

"You just have to make up for the fact that you did nothing, but ridicule him during the first half of fifth year," Lavender teased Seamus, as she spooned a glob of thick oatmeal into the bowl in front of her.

Seamus sneered playfully, leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek before slinging his own book bag over his shoulder. "I was merely questioning the source at hand, even the Minister was saying how much of a crackpot he was for some time. I'm headed to plant some explosives around the grounds. I'll meet you in Transfiguration."

"Make good decisions," she retorted, having only half-listened to what he was saying as she had just begun to dig into her oatmeal.

Parvati, who always watched their exchanges closely, rolled her eyes at the two. "When are you two EVER going to address this silent thing between you?"

Lavender opened her mouth to respond, but shut it quickly when Ginny sat at the table across her, glowering over the plate of bacon that had just refilled. She knew, but didn't need the redhead to know, that the short time she had "dated" Ron in an attempt to extrapolate information from him had nearly ended the friendship between her and Seamus.

Her Irish crush had been hurt deeply by the entire ordeal, sending Lavender into a spiral of inward deep thoughts about what she was willing to lose to find out this information that she didn't even know existed. It took until Dumbledore dying for Seamus to come around, despite Lavender's attempts at making it up to him.

Parvati sighed, knowing full well she wasn't going to get a truthful answer from her best friend during one of the busiest times in Great Hall. The warning bell signaling the beginning of the day tolled once and there was a simultaneous clatter of utensils on dishes as the students began to make their way toward their first class of the semester.

"Come on!" Parvati grinned, clambering out of her own seat at the table, "Professor Trelawney is up first and we both just KNOW how much she HATES later comers." She ended her sarcastic statement with a giggle. Both ladies adored Professor Trelawney, but the poor professor wouldn't have even connected the fact that they missed a lesson, let alone be late for one.

Lavender grinned back, snatching her bag off the flagstone floor. "We shouldn't keep her waiting then. Wouldn't want to fail our NEWT Divination lessons." She snaked her arm around Parvati's elbow and the two best friends broke down into a fit of giggles as they exited the Great Hall, stomping up the grand staircase toward the tower.

While neither girl was particularly interested in continuing Divination as a career of any sort, the class had been more of an Independent Study for the past year, allowing the two to sit on comfortable poufs and gossip, occasionally looking at each other's palms or staring into the crystal ball.

They finally reached the landing of the tower, huffing and puffing from climbing the dozen sets of stairs. "You would THINK," Lavender started, creeping onto her tip toes in order to reach the cord that opened the trap door, "that after ALL of these YEARS we wouldn't get nearly as wiped out getting to class."

"Speak for yourself," Parvati shot back, though she was clutching her side and leaning against the wall, breathing quite heavily.

Lavender scrambled up the ladder, collapsing onto the nearest pouf that she could find. Parvati wasn't far behind, dumping her bag next to the circular wooden table. Professor Trelawney, who clearly had forgotten she was teaching a class that morning, looked up in surprise from her perch at the front of the classroom.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts," she said, the mistiness in her voice ringing out over the surprise of the two students clambering unsuspectedly into her tower, "while I am currently drawn into the realm of the unknown, I shall have you two practice whichever skill you feel ineptest for your NEWT exams at the end of this year." With that, she turned back toward her crystal ball, her eyes squinted behind her large framed glasses.

"We didn't even have to come," Parvati hissed as Lavender flew out of her pouf, grabbing a tea pot, the bag of tea leaves, and two small mugs from the shelf on the other side of the classroom. Parvati eyed the set up and groaned, placing her forehead in the palm of her hand. "Lav- we've been over this. I thought we had decided to give up on the entire endeavor with the tea leaves."

"We had…I just-" Lavender trailed off as she dumped some tea leaves into the hot water she had just shot into her mug from the tip of her wand, "I don't know, you've been my best friend for so long and I just-" She paused again, swirling the contents three times with her left hand before draining the mug into her mouth (burning her tongue in the process) and placing the mug facedown onto the saucer it came with.

Parvati leaned forward, patting her best friend's forearm lightly. She knew, unlike most everyone else, that Lavender had been struggling with these feelings since they had met. "Well, let's keep our fingers crossed that this year it has changed."

Lavender took a deep breath, blowing out her cheeks, before turning the mug back over and peering into it. She groaned in frustration, thinking for a moment about chucking the mug across the room. Parvati looked at her with sympathy. "The exact same?"

"The. Exact. Same." Lavender sighed, leaning back in her pouf. "Listen, I have Transfiguration next and Professor Trelawney isn't going to be bothered if I just leave early." She paused to glance at the professor, who was very much still being entertained by whatever she was seeing in the crystal ball. "I think I'm just going to head to the library before going to see McGonagall. I can't stand to be in this classroom much longer."

Parvati shrugged her right shoulder. "I'll just follow you then. No point in me being in this sweltering tower all by my lonesome."

The two girls quickly packed up their things and made their way out of the tower.

Lavender was consumed by her thoughts the entire way to the library, wondering why she was feeling so lost and confused at the beginning of this term more than others. Maybe it was that Dumbledore was no longer alive, therefore a major source of protection was missing. Maybe it was the fact that she was already worried about Seamus, who seemed to take it upon himself to shoulder the burden of being the troublemaker after Fred and George Weasley departed on their broomsticks during fifth year.

Or maybe it was just the fact that Lavender no longer felt the need to be wild and outgoing to impress her classmates. She was just as satisfied at keeping her head down, getting through her lessons, and graduating at the end of the school year. There was no reason to raise attention to herself any longer.

Maybe she was depressed, her mother had been worried about that over the summer. Maybe, after all this time, she was just tired of trying to be someone she wasn't.

…..

"Can you actually believe that Amycus Carrow is teaching us Unforgivable Curses?" Neville asked darkly, snuggling deeper into the armchair that sat across from the fireplace. The three seventh years were silent after Neville's rhetorical statement, listening to the crackling logs. "It was one thing when Professor Moody did it, but-"

"Didn't that Moody turn out to be another deranged death eater using polyjuice potion?" Lavender piped up, wrapping her arms tightly around her knees as she sat on the plush rug in front of Parvati's arm chair.

"Seems to me as if this school has a bit of a security problem," Neville nodded, continuing to stare into the fire.

While the three seventh years didn't have any homework to be done after the first day back of classes, they had all decided to wait up together when their fourth partner, Seamus, had to serve his first detention with the Carrows. Lavender peered at the clock over her shoulder. 11:35 at night. He should be stumbling in the door any time-

The portrait swung open, Seamus stumbling in, immediately falling to his knees just as he crossed the threshold into the common room. Lavender popped up, crossing the room in record time to reach him.

"Seamus, what are you- oh, my Merlin." Lavender let out a gasp of surprise as she saw Seamus's face. The right eye was bruised and swollen, his lip busted open in the middle. Blood was running down his left temple from a gash near his hairline. He winced in pain when he tried to move, indicating to Lavender that he had some sort of injury on or near his rib cage on the right side. "Parvati- get some essence of murtlap!"

Parvati scrambled up the stairs, taking them two at a time to reach the girls dormitory, where she knew Lavender kept the essence of murtlap in her trunk.

"Seamus, what the hell happened, man?" Neville asked, crouching down next to Seamus in order to get a hold underneath his armpit. Seamus hissed in pain as Neville and Lavender pulled him to his feet, half-dragging him to a couch near the fireplace.

"The Carrows happened," Seamus spat out, relaxing back into the cushions and closing his eyes. Parvati pounded back down the stairs, a miniscule amount of the essence of murtlap poured into a small bowl that she had clutched in her hand. Lavender gently took the bowl from her and conjured up a washcloth, dipping it into the liquid and pressing it into the wounds on Seamus's face. He sighed in relief, relaxing even more as the potion started to do its work. "They took my wand," Seamus went on after the majority of his facial injuries had begun to heal, "and played with me like a cat plays with a mouse. Trip jinxes, augamenti charm to the face until I couldn't breathe-"

Lavender's eyes started to swell up with tears as she listened to Seamus list off the things the Carrows did to torture him.

"-Kept saying that they were the deputies of the headmaster now. Just that they would be taking over all punishments and if I knew what was best for me, that would be the last time I put a toe out of line."

"We have to be even more careful," Parvati whispered, her eyes flicking in horror across Seamus's face, which was still quite bruised, but now pain free. "This isn't Hogwarts. This is nothing like Hogwarts."

"This is Hogwarts now," Seamus muttered, shaking his head slowly, "this is Hogwarts as long as You-Know-Who is around."

Lavender stayed silent, pressing the cloth against Seamus's ribs. It only confirmed her feelings of laying low and getting through until the end of the year. She only hoped that Seamus would learn quickly to do the same.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello everyone!**

 **Surprise update! I know I just put out a new chapter yesterday, but I'm going on a 10-day vacation starting today and I wanted to make sure you lovely readers didn't think I forgot about you! Now…don't hate me, because this one does kind of end in a cliff hanger, BUT I needed to cut it off somewhere or else it would have continued for 10,000 words.**

 **As always, you are amazing. Read, review, and enjoy!**

"So I've been thinking," Neville muttered as Seamus and Lavender made their way to Charms a few weeks into the term, "that maybe it's time to get the DA back together again."

Seamus whooped in agreement, allowing sparks to fly out of the end of his wand. He tossed an arm over Lavender's shoulder, in an effort to slap Neville on the back. "I've been hoping for WEEKS now that you would say that," he replied, a heart-stopping grin settling onto his lips. Usually it was the kind of grin that sent Lavender's heart fluttering, but this time it only made her heart drop into the pit of her stomach.

"Isn't it quite dangerous now?" she inquired, wringing her hands in front of her, "Dumbledore isn't here anymore to protect us from Umbridge, like when the DA was first founded." She paused as Flitwick opened up the classroom door, allowing the NEWT seventh year students to stream to their seats. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "This is completely different. Just a few days ago there was a rumor going around that a fourth year Hufflepuff was tortured using the cruciatus curse in detention with the Carrows."

"That's exactly why we need to do it," Neville whispered back, setting his book bag on the floor next to his seat. He slammed his wand onto the desk, ignoring the warning spark it gave, "The younger students need to know there are people here still willing to look out for them." He dug into his pocket, pulling out the fake galleon Hermione had bewitched in their fifth year. "We should send out a signal, see who else is willing to participate."

Seamus clapped Neville on the back once again, leaning over his seat to do so. "You can count me in, mate. Someone needs to show the Carrows who's boss."

Lavender sent the two a tight smile just as Flitwick climbed onto his desk to begin class. She missed the opening of the lecture, her thoughts flittering elsewhere in her mind as she stared out of the window. The leaves were in the midst of changing, sending the grounds into a flurry of color. Fall used to be one of her favorite times of the year at the castle, the scenery from the towers were breathtaking to behold. Now, it merely reminded her that she was still in the beginning stages of her seventh year, the nightmare of her seventh year, and there was quite a long way to go.

Charms seemed to end quickly once Lavender got her mind into the lesson, a refresher on atmospheric charms, and the end of the class merely signaled for Seamus and Neville to discuss their recent revelation to start up Dumbledore's Army once again.

"Listen boys," she interrupted them, as they were both in the midst of planning the first meeting, "I'm going to head to the library. See you in Dark Arts later?" Seamus squeezed her hand and sent her a wink before peeling off with Neville, who was so focused on his thoughts that Lavender was quite sure he didn't hear a word she said.

She shook her head as she snaked her way through the empty tables, heading toward the back of the library where she knew no one would bother her. Checking the time and realizing she had quite the break before Dark Arts started, she decided to begin the Transfiguration essay on conjuration that McGonagall had due for the end of the week following.

Dropping her bag onto the table, she snaked back through the rows of tables until she reached the section of library books specifically clumped together for Transfiguration. She swiped her index finger along the spines of the books as she slowly walked down the aisle, waiting for a book on conjuration to catch her eye. She placed a hand on the top of the first one she came across, sliding it off of the shelf and into her hand.

In the quick process, she almost missed the sound of parchment hitting the floor between her feet. She glanced down, surprised to see an old, folded up newspaper clipping had fluttered down to the flagstone floor. Tucking the book underneath her arm, she bent down to grasp the paper, turning it over in her hand to get a better look at it.

 _Sirius Black Dead at the Ministry  
Written by Rita Skeeter  
Daily Prophet Correspondent_

 _In a twist of events, Sirius Black, formerly known as the murderer of Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles in the days following the deaths of James and Lily Potter, has been killed in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic over the weekend._

 _While sources are refusing to confirm what events conspired that led to Sirius Black being in that specific department at the time of his death, it has at least been confirmed that he was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange, a cousin to Black and a known supporter of You-Know-Who._

 _Following his death, Minister Cornelius Fudge has pardoned the record of Black saying his arrest was "a mere misunderstanding" and it was "unfortunate that Sirius spent much of his life locked in a high-security tower."_

 _Sirius Black was preceded in death by his mother, Walburga, his father, Orion, and his brother, Regulus. He was also preceded in death by his fiancée, Haley Brams. Brams was killed by death eaters in the days following Black's arrest. Her murderer remains in high-security lockdown. Please see earlier reports, written by yours truly, for specific events._

Lavender furrowed her brow, turning over the parchment once more. She had known that Sirius Black was pardoned for his crimes. She hadn't known that Sirius Black was once engaged. In all of the hub-bub surrounding his escape and his death, she guessed it hadn't registered with her. Interesting.

She tucked the news article into the pocket of her sweater just as the bell tolled, signaling for the next string of classes to begin. Sighing, she summoned her bag from the table and tucked the book into it, before hitching the bag over her shoulder and headed toward Dark Arts.

…..

"I saw Michael Corner and Terry Boot in the hallway," Neville said as he stuck the end of a sugar quill into his mouth, sucking on it thoughtfully, "they were completely ready to begin the DA again. In fact, they were asking why we hadn't thought of it sooner."

The conversation, very clearly, hadn't ended when classes were over. Neville and Seamus were in planning mode from the moment the DA was brought up earlier that morning. Lavender, who was trying to stay as far out of it as she could, merely rolled her eyes and silently continued working on the essay in her corner of the room.

"I'm more than certain Ernie MacMillian would join up again," Ginny replied, doodling on the piece of parchment that was nearest her. "His best friend is Justin Finch-Fletchy…poor dear had to flee from You-Know-Who as well."

"Luna? Padma? The Creevey brothers?" Neville shot back fiercely, a glint of rebellion resting in his eyes.

Parvati popped her head up at the sound of her twin sister's name. "I know that Padma would absolutely come back! She thought it was so fun last time."

Lavender peered up from her essay, glaring at her best friend. "Don't encourage them," she hissed, "you know how dangerous this is going to be. We can't afford to-"

"Sometimes," Seamus interrupted, placing a hand on Lavender's head and ruffling her hair lightly, "doing the thing you know is right means putting yourself in danger for the good of the people."

Lavender slapped his hand away, quickly trying to tame her blonde curls. "You sound just like Dumbledore," she said with a laugh, turning her wand on Seamus and lazily tossing a multicoloris spell toward him. His hair turned green instantly, which he fixed with another lazy flick of his wand.

"Considering I fully supported Dumbledore, I will also fully support SOUNDING like Dumbledore. Those damn Carrows have already forced us to practice the cruciatus curse on the school ravens. Who knows what will be next?"

She grimaced at the truthfulness of the statement, leaning back in her seat as she set her quill down next to the parchment in front of her. Something stuck her in the side and she jumped forward once again in surprise, catching Seamus and Parvati off guard. Furrowing her brow, she reached into her pocket, her fingers closing around the news article she had tucked away earlier.

"Everything okay?" Parvati asked, as Seamus had now become engaged once again with Neville, plotting the next steps to reforming the DA.

Lavender pulled out the news article, gently dropping it on the desk. "Did you know that Sirius Black was engaged at one point or another?"

Ginny, who had been engrossed in Quidditch Through the Ages, peered over the top of her book. Lavender ignored her, turning back toward Parvati, who was in the process of shrugging.

"Why would I know that Sirius Black was engaged at some point?" She grinned mischievously, stealing the news article from the desk as she glanced over the picture of a young Sirius. "It's a shame what happened to him though. He was a good looking fellow back in his day."

Lavender scrunched her nose, leaning forward to rip the news article from her hands. "Ew, Parvati, he was old enough to be our father."

Parvati shrugged again, rolling her eyes. "Just barely. Look at him! You can't pretend that he isn't a good looking lad."

She sighed, turning back to look at the picture. There was something familiar about his face…something that she couldn't quite put a finger on. "I have to run," she said, slamming her Transfiguration book shut and screwing the lid onto her ink bottle.

"Where are you-?" Parvati had tried to say, but Lavender had already flown out of the portrait hole, headed toward the library. Something about the picture…about the article…about learning Sirius Black was engaged…it was all bothering her. She didn't know why; she couldn't have even begun to understand. There was just a knot in the pit of her stomach that was telling her she needed to find out more.

The library was still open for a little while, so Lavender quickly started to do math in her head as she made her way through the aisles for the second time that day.

 _Harry defeated You-Know-Who the first time when we were 1 year old. That would have been…October of 1981. The article said that Sirius Black's fiancée died a few days later…November 1981, November 1981, November 1981…_

She repeated it in her head as she thumbed over old albums filled with newspaper clippings, each labeled for the month and year the articles that were contained in them were written.

November 1981.

She grabbed the album and pulled it off the shelf, taking a brisk walk toward the table nearest to her. Wrenching the book open, she scanned the pages, watching for any signs of Sirius Black or Haley…Brams? She had to double check the original article she found to make certain of the name.

 _Haley Brams Found Dead in Her Home  
Written by Rita Skeeter  
Daily Prophet Correspondent _

_Haley Brams, fiancée of convicted murderer Sirius Black, was found dead in her home of an apparent attack from supporters of You-Know-Who. The killing curse was expected to have been the culprit and the murderer has been caught._

There wasn't a picture the accompanied the article. It was almost laughable to call it an article, as it was so miniscule that Lavender almost skimmed right over it.

"What are you doing with that?"

Lavender jumped, her heart catching in her throat, as she spun around, surprised to see Ginny standing behind her with her arms folded over her chest. "Wh-what are you doing here? Did you FOLLOW me?"

Ginny didn't deny it nor did she appear abashed by the accusation. "I asked what are you doing with that?" She took a few steps forward, peering over Lavender's shoulders before flicking her eyes up to meet Lavender's. "And how do you know about Haley Brams?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everyone! I am back from vacation and ready to get things back on track! Hopefully you had a nice couple weeks off! Nothing new from me on this end, other than I was able to outline the story a bit more on my days off, so the direction is becoming more and more clear!**

 **As always, love hearing from you, so make sure to leave a review on your way out! Just a quick reminder: if you have come across this story, please check out my page and read In the Name of Being Honest, as this is the sequel!**

 **Check back in a few days for the next chapter!**

 **Read, review, and enjoy!**

There was a pregnant pause as anger reeled inside of Lavender, threatening to spill out of her mouth with every colorful phrase she could think of. She had been working in the past few months to try and control her anger, as she wasn't exactly sure where it came from. Neither of her parents had a particularly bad temper like she had. She was ready to throw her progress out of the nearest window.

"You didn't answer my question," she retorted coldly, glaring at Ginny with her arms crossed over her chest. "Did you follow me down here?"

Ginny rolled her eyes, not skipping a beat. "I've been wanting to talk to you about your relationship with my brother-" It was Lavender's turn to roll her eyes- "but then I heard you talking about Haley Brams in the common room, so I'm changing my tune. How do you know about her?"

Lavender tossed the article she had tucked into her pocket at Ginny, who caught in clumsily between the palms of her hands. "This fell out of the book I was looking at for a Transfiguration essay I have due. I didn't realize that Sirius Black had a fiancée." Lavender shrugged her shoulders. "I was just curious, is all, no big deal."

"She was a big deal to Sirius and so was their daughter."

Lavender furrowed her brow, pointing her finger roughly into the newspaper. "That didn't say anything about a daughter."

Ginny paused, her mouth opened slightly in surprise. "Well, what about the other article you were reading? Surely-"

Lavender grabbed the last article she had read, shoving it quickly into the Weasley girl's hands once again. "Nothing. No mention of a daughter at all. Are you sure he-"

"Yes, I'm sure," Ginny snapped, tossing the articles onto the closest table. It was her turn to cross her arms over her chest. "Sirius Black was a friend of mine, he told me…he told us…" She trailed off, hardening her gaze. "I could help you. You know, research."

"Research?" Lavender replied, tucking the book she had taken from the shelf under her arm. "Research what?"

Ginny toed at the floor with her sneaker, her face turning a mild shade of red. "You know...research the Black family. I've only heard the stories, hadn't really given it any thought since then. It could be fun. Learning about Sirius and all that."

Lavender couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was almost laughable it was so ridiculous. Ginny Weasley- her ex-boyfriend's sister- was offering help with a research project about Sirius Black. A laugh did manage to bubble up, escaping before Lavender could swallow it down. "I think I can figure it out for myself, thank you," she retorted, turning to leave the aisle Ginny had cornered her in.

Ginny's arms crossed tighter around her chest, her glare deepening despite the blush in her cheeks. "If you must know, I'm the only one at this school who has the information on Sirius Black that you need to even think about getting started. If you want to find out more, you're going to have to go through me." She stomped off, leaving Lavender behind to sneer at her back.

It took her some time to make her way back to the common room, her thoughts muddled with the conversation she just had. Why would Ginny offer to help? She knew the redhead didn't have fond thoughts of her. What could possibly have been in it for her?

She continued to weave her way through the hallways, mindlessly wandering the castle with the book clasped lightly in her hand, dangling carelessly at her side. Her thoughts were clogged with Sirius Black and this Haley Brams girl. Why did Lavender care about them anyways? Why was she having such a hard time letting it go?

"OY! WHAT ARE YOU DOIN?!"

Lavender jumped, spinning around to face where the voice had come from. Getting ready to blurt out an excuse for walking the halls so late, she realized she had wandered into the courtyard. And the voice hadn't been speaking to her.

"Just laying out the entertainment for the evening," a familiar voice with an Irish tongue chuckled back, clearing taunting. "Don't you want us to have a little fun?"

She creeped forward, hiding behind a pillar at the edge of the courtyard. She peeked around the stone cylinder, silently praying Seamus didn't continue to egg the death eater professors on. It didn't work. In a flash, Seamus waved his wand, hitting one of the Weasley Wizard Wheeze's fireworks collections that he had bound together and placed near middle of the courtyard.

It exploded with a deafening boom, rocketing upward into the night sky before blasting open so brightly that Lavender needed to squint as she watched it. The Carrow siblings gaped at the fireworks, clearly taken aback that Seamus had detonated it right in front of them. The split second they had taken their eyes off of her best friend was the very moment Seamus was looking for.

He scuttled across the courtyard, whooping loudly as he disappeared into the hallways parallel to where she was standing. He hadn't even noticed Lavender, who was still very much hidden in the shadows of the pillars. More interested in the reaction to the Carrows, she took a few more steps back so the fireworks from up above (one which now was spelling out incredibly inappropriate words mid-air) wouldn't illuminate her figure and give her away.

The two professors were cursing to each other, staring around the courtyard where the stone floor was both scattered and scorched. It looked as if a bomb had gone off. Lavender, knowing Seamus had his ability to make just about anything explode, would not have been surprised if it was an actual bomb. The Carrows, however, didn't even bother to try to repair the courtyard, but merely sped off in the direction Seamus had took off in.

Considering the gleeful whooping had faded off into the depths of the castle, Lavender figured Seamus was halfway to the common room by now. Knowing she needed to find an alternative route in order to keep away from the Carrows, she crept back into the darkness, fully intending on taking the shortcut behind the tapestry on the third floor, one that she knew the Carrows wouldn't even be able to fit into.

…..

"We'll have the first meeting in a week or so," Neville was hissing to Michael Corner as they exited the Great Hall the next morning, Lavender not far behind as she headed to Transfiguration. "Keep the coin from the DA on your person, I'll update it once I have the final count."

Michael nodded, a determined gaze planted on his face.

Neville had been quite successful recruiting past DA members, something that pleasantly surprised Lavender. Terry Boot and Luna Lovegood had recently agreed to take up orders, as had Padma Patil and Susan Bones. Besides the original DA members who had recently graduated, that meant the vast majority of members had agreed to reform.

Lavender tried to swallow back the sense of pride she had in her fellow students, as she knew the work was going to be increasingly more dangerous as time went on, she couldn't help but feel the adrenaline pump through her veins as she thought about it. Underage witches and wizards secretly combining forces to defeat You-Know-Who.

For some reason, she very much liked the sounds of it.

Neville split off from the group, heading toward the front door for Herbology while Lavender climbed the stairs in the direction of Transfiguration. She had left Seamus behind, who was stuck at the Gryffindor table retelling his tale of how he barely escaped the Carrows grasp in the dead of night, being chased through the castle as they ran right on his cloak-tails.

Lavender rolled her eyes, calling out Seamus on his bold stories, and laughing as his face fell once he realized she was, in fact, telling the truth that she was hiding amongst the pillars of the courtyard. That didn't stop him from throwing himself at the opportunity to re-tell the story the way he "remembered" it as he caught the attention of the first and second years.

She managed to make it all the way to the classroom before Seamus jogged in behind her, sending her a wink that sent her heart into her throat. She settled into her seat at the front of the classroom, taking out a roll of parchment and a quill to ready herself for the NEWT lesson ahead of them.

Professor McGonagall snapped her wand toward the door, effectively shutting it with a bang. Her face looked grimmer than usual, her lips set into a thin line that she usually only set aside when Neville had still been taking her classes.

"Please take out your books and turn to page one hundred-"

She hadn't even managed to finish her sentence when the door to her classroom swung open, hitting the stone wall behind it with another loud bang. Ernie MacMillian nearly fell out of his seat in fright, everyone else whipping around to see who had made the dramatic entrance.

Lavender's stomach dropped as she spotted Alecto Carrow standing in the doorway, her hands on her hips and her mouth set in a line tighter than Professor McGonagall's.

"STUPEFY!" she called out, whipping her wand toward Seamus. She luckily missed, imbedding the curse into the corner of his desk, where wood splinters flew like shrapnel across the room.

"PROFESSOR," McGonagall shouted, her hand flying up to her chest as she took out her own wand and pointed it toward the death eater, "what on earth-"

"We saw him last night! Sneakin' about, blowin' up the courtyard." She paused to send another curse at Seamus, which was easily blocked by the Transfiguration professor, giving Seamus time to pull out his wand and fly out of his seat, ready to defend himself.

"We NEVER use curses as a punishment in this castle," she cried out, taking a few steps toward Alecto, "we NEVER-"

"You NEVER DID when Dumbledore was 'ere," she retorted with a nasty grin on her face, "times change. Punishments change. Boy needs to learn his place in this school. Needs to learn how the Dark Lord wills us to handle things now."

Seamus readied himself, blocking the third curse Alecto had tossed his way. His own smirk grew with Alecto's frustration. "DETENTION," she finally shouted, her fourth and final curse being deflected once again. "TONIGHT. In my office, boy."

The door slammed shut behind her as she left, leaving the classroom on edge as everyone turned to Seamus, whose face fell sourly as he turned to face Professor McGonagall.

"I will escort you myself to detention, Mr. Finnigan," she finally said with a sigh as she dropped herself into the seat behind her desk. Lavender had never seen the professor appear so defeated. "But I implore each and every one of you to not even put a toe out of line. The Carrows will not hesitate to use forceful measures if necessary. They have the backing of the Ministry, the backing of You-Know-Who-"

Lavender allowed the professor's speech to fade out as she turned her eye over to Seamus, who had toughened his face into a determined grimace. It was clear, she feared more than anything, that the encounter with the female Carrow had only seeded the DA further into Seamus's thoughts. She knew, this time around, that Dumbledore's Army was going to be in real danger if they were caught.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello everyone! I hope you had a fabulous weekend and start to your week! Nothing new to report from me.**

 **As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

Neville had officially announced the first meeting for the reformed DA, setting off the fake galleons for the day after next. Directly after dinner in the Room of Requirement.

The weather had just begun to turn, the strong wind becoming bitterly cold as the middle of autumn brought on rain storms, forcing the leaves on the trees to fall violently to the ground. Which meant that the students were staying indoors. Neville thought, quite smartly Lavender believed, that the students disappearing after dinner in the Great Hall was far less suspicious than attempting the meeting at another hour of the day.

It was made better, though, that Draco Malfoy was far more subdued this term than last. It seemed that (allegedly, it was merely a rumor to the students) watching the death of Albus Dumbledore unfold in front of him had been a mental block he hadn't been able to get past.

That made it much easier for the students to create a secret group underneath the nose of Professor Snape.

Lavender was wrapped up in her Charms essay for Professor Flitwick, the theory of weather changing charms, just at the beginning of the weekend. It was the kind of weekend that, merely a year ago, she would have been looking forward to a quidditch match to attend.

Evidently, You-Know-Who found no use in organized sports.

The library was quiet; the only sound was Lavender's quill scratching lightly against the parchment as she wrote. There were only a handful of other students in her area, all of them wrapped up in their own work as well.

 _The theory of snow versus rain is in the motion of the wrist, but that has been much debated by scholars in the past 150 years…_ Lavender had just scribbled down before pausing to stretch over the back of her seat. This fifteen-inch essay was going to be the death of her, as she was having a hard time coming up with fifteen inches of content.

"Have you thought about what I said?"

Lavender jumped in her seat, immediately breaking her concentration. "Merlin, Ginny, what the hell?"

Ginny didn't bat an eye. She grabbed the back of the chair closest to Lavender, scraping it backwards loudly against the stone floor before plopping herself down and leaning over the table. Lavender backed away, her brows furrowed in mistrust.

"I asked if you had thought about what I said."

Lavender sighed, putting her quill down on the table next to her parchment roll. She had thought about it, quite a bit, in the last week or so. She had minimally attempted to find out more about Sirius Black's daughter, the thought of why still stumping her, but had become increasingly frustrated as she weeded through countless articles from years past.

"I hadn't given it much thought at all," she lied smoothly, looking at the Weasley girl with cool eyes, "I've been busy."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Busy reading articles about Sirius Black? I've seen you in here while I've been studying. I've seen you perusing through the aisles containing old Daily Prophet editions."

Lavender's cheeks flushed as she licked her lips, not sure of what to say next. It was clear she had been caught red-handed.

"Listen," Ginny sighed, planting her elbows on the wooden library table, "I know we've seen our share of differences. I'm not sure why, but I feel like I should help you. I have information that could come in use."

Lavender sighed, eyeing the other girl. "And what's in it for you then?" She was mighty suspicious that Ginny was offering up help…even extending an olive branch between the two was more than surprising.

Ginny put up her hands in surrender. "Merely trying to help a fellow Gryffindor, that's all. Sirius was- Sirius is- Harry-" She stopped herself, pausing for a moment to regroup. "If you want me to be honest, Sirius was a great friend to Harry. With Harry gone, with this war…I don't know. Maybe I'm hoping that finding out more about Sirius will bring me closer to Harry."

It was well known that Sirius Black was the godfather of Harry Potter. Lavender took a deep breath. She understood too well wanting to feel closer to the person she loved. Her mind flitted over to Seamus and how she had hurt him so badly last year in her attempts to find herself. She hadn't meant to be so selfish, sometimes she did things without thinking.

"Fine, yes," Lavender finally said, "you can help."

Ginny grinned, quickly reaching under the table. Lavender went into automatic defense, expecting an oncoming curse to be flung her way just as she had slightly let her guard down. She grasped her wand tightly in time for Ginny to slam a book on the table in front of her. Lavender realized that the book had been sitting at Ginny's feet all along.

"Great!" she exclaimed, randomly flipping the book open. Lavender glanced at the pages Ginny was scrambling through, recognizing the header at the top of each one.

"The Daily Prophet?" she questioned, her eyebrow shooting up in response. "I've looked through a TON of articles, there is no mention of a daughter, her name, anything like that."

Ginny leaned forward, lowering her voice so much that Lavender also had to lean forward in order to hear her. "The last time I spoke to Sirius about his daughter, or even his fiancée for that matter, was just before my fourth year. He talked about how they met and such, but all he mentioned about her death was that he was in Azkaban when he found out she was killed…a year later-"

"But I found the article from, when was it, November 1981?" Lavender interrupted, "I would barely even CALL it an article, to be honest-"

"Here's the thing though," Ginny interjected, her turn to cut off her fellow Gryffindor, "Sirius said there were articles following the trial of Haley Brams's murder. That's how he found out about it. The articles mentioned that her daughter wasn't with her when she was found dead, that she was missing."

Lavender squinted her eyes, her thoughts racing through her head. "So, we should be looking at articles from 1982?"

"Precisely," Ginny nodded, clearly pleased that Lavender had caught on so quickly, "For the life of me, and I absolutely HATE to admit this, but I cannot remember the name of his daughter. It would make things so much easier. I'm hoping we can find at least one article containing her name, then we can find her birth record and go from there."

Lavender rubbed her temples, quickly becoming overwhelmed by the work in front of her. "Ginny, there are…hundreds of articles from 1982. Daily reports, special editions. Hell, the Sunday paper is twice the size of every other day of the week. It's going to take us weeks of diligent research to find what we're looking for."

Ginny grimaced. "I know. My best bet is that we start in November 1982. Sirius said he learned of her murder almost a year after it happened. Hence-" She gestured toward the book containing the Daily Prophet articles in front of her.

Lavender sighed, glancing at the essay that lay forgotten about on the table. "Let's start after the…meeting. It'll give me time to catch up on school work." Ginny nodded, slamming the book shut, getting ready to check it out. "But, Ginny- please don't mention to anyone what we're doing. I already feel like a complete dunce for beginning this."

Ginny shot her an incredulous look. "Like we want the death eaters running the castle to know we're looking up information on a dead Order member. We'll probably be killed."

…..

Lavender was feeling much lighter as she entered the Great Hall for dinner later that evening, a pep in her step that she couldn't hide. She was grateful for Ginny, surprisingly enough, for offering the help and easily giving up the information she needed to get an actual start.

She hadn't mentioned the research project to Parvati, even though they had spent the afternoon playing exploding snap and wizard's chess together. She couldn't bear the frustrated look she was sure she would have received from mentioning it, the look that Parvati couldn't help but send her every time she pulled out her set of tea leaves.

She knew that Parvati meant well, that as her best friend, she would do ANYTHING to help Lavender whenever she needed. Lavender also knew that Parvati's patience with the subject was running short. That after 4 years with the same results, Lavender was nothing short of insane for continuing to obsess about it.

As far as Parvati was concerned, Lavender knew that she had mentally stopped caring so much about the tea leaves when Ron Weasley was a useless path to take. If anything, that disappointment fueled her more.

She took a seat between Neville and Seamus, Parvati sending her a wink from across the table. She blushed slightly as Seamus turned to her, animatedly describing his day. She couldn't help the flutter that went off in the pit of her stomach every time he made eye contact with her. The crush she had on Seamus had been years in the making.

The dinner for that evening, roast lamb with red skinned potatoes and green beans, appeared on the gold serving plates in front of them. The chatter quieted down significantly as the students reached forward to serve themselves, but the food disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared, sending a look of confusion through the crowd.

Professor Snape rose slowly out of his seat in the headmaster's chair, commanding the attention of the entire hall.

"There will be no dinner tonight," he began, immediately sending angry, protesting shouts through the air.

Alecto Carrow stood up at her seat, pounding the head table with her fists. "YOU LISTEN TO HIM YOU UNGRATEFUL BRATS!" She shouted over the dull roar that had rung out from the student tables. "MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU'LL THINK BEFORE-"

"Thank you, Professor Carrow," Snape interjected loudly as the crowd of students began to quiet down, curious as to what the fuss was about, "it seems we have some students taking issue with the way things are run. It seems these students have taken it upon themselves to reform a certain…group."

Lavender was flabbergasted, wondering silently how Snape had found out so quickly about the DA. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Neville smirking and glancing over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Dumbledore's Army-" Lavender knew it was going to be about the DA- "specifically falls under the rules of this school for organized groups to be formed. I assure you, if the Dark Lord doesn't want you to play quidditch, he doesn't want you to form resistance groups." He paused, scanning the hall quickly. Neville was able to straighten his face just in time. "As no one had been officially caught writing on the wall, individual punishment is not possible at this time. Rest assured, if we find out who was responsible, you will be punished for the highest extent of your actions. There will be no dinner tonight, the hall is dismissed."

There was a collective groan amidst angry shouts as students stood dejectedly out of their seats. Lavender leaned over to Neville. "Do you know what he was talking about?" she hissed into his ear as she gathered her book bag from the floor and swung it over her shoulder.

Neville grinned at him. "You mean the message written in paint on the wall outside of Snape's office saying the DA has been reformed and is actively recruiting?" He paused to shrug. "I have no idea who would do something like that. OY! PATIL! Help me get some food from the kitchens to bring back up to the common room. Can't have our fellow Gryffindors surviving on old candy through the night!"

Lavender smiled, even the news that Neville (and whoever else was responsible for helping him) had tagged the walls in an obvious attempt to antagonize the professors.

"Brown!"

She turned, watching Seamus jog up next to her.

"Hogsmeade weekend is coming up soon. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me."

She laughed, adjusting her book bag on her shoulder. "Seamus, I always go to Hogsmeade with you!"

Seamus smiled, shaking his head. "No, I mean, I was hoping you would go WITH me."

Lavender stopped in her tracks, staring at Seamus with the most unladylike open mouth. "WITH you? As in…?" She trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud in case she was very wrong.

"Lavender, go on a date with me."

Dumbstruck that it seemingly happened out of nowhere, all she could do was merely nod her head.


	8. Chapter 8

**OKAY! So glad to be back. I'm sorry about the lack of updates. I ended up having an emergency surgery and I've been recovering from that! Everything is great and I'm slowly getting back to normal, hence the new chapter!**

 **Still loving the feedback, so please keep that coming! While we do have awhile to go in this series, I had a thought come to me…would you be interested if I wrote a side-along series to In the Name of Being Honest about their seventh year at Hogwarts from Sirius's point of view? Or would I be beating a dead horse?**

 **As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

 _I am a strong, independent woman_ , Lavender thought to herself as she clambered through the portrait hole, walking toward the great hall for breakfast the day of the first Hogsmeade trip. _I don't need a man. I am strong and independent and smart and-_

Lavender had created a mantra for herself ever since Seamus had finally, FINALLY, asked her out on a date. Though it had been several years in the making and no one was the least bit surprised for it, she found that she was becoming increasingly more anxious as the days wore on. Even Seamus's presence made her nervous and she realized she was starting to focus on petty things, such as how her arms swung at her sides when she walked next to him or how her makeup skills were subpar compared to many of the other girls in the school.

When it came down to it, she continued to try and remind herself that Seamus asked her on a date because she was Lavender Brown and not Padma or Susan or Hermione, etc.

That reassuring thought, however, didn't stop her from looking in the mirror that morning and criticizing her brown eyes or how her nose was too slender or how her blonde curls hung limply down her back unless she charmed it otherwise.

 _I am a strong, independent-_

"Lavender! Wait up!"

Despite the mantra she had set out for herself, she was irritated to find that her heart leapt into her throat and her pulse quickened as Seamus said her name. She had to repress a squeal of excitement and jumping up and down as he approached her, a grin donning his lips.

"I was hoping I would catch you! We can just go to Hogsmeade right after breakfast, try and skip the line."

Lavender attempted to come up with a quick-witted response, but was having a hard time coming up with anything that sounded remotely quick or witty. Stupid hormones. "Yeah, that sounds great!" Lame. "Did you have anything in mind for Hogsmeade?" Even more so.

Seamus shrugged his shoulders as they turned the corner, entering the great hall together. "Not so much, just wanted to spend the day with you is all." He grinned down at her, effectively sending her heart erratically beating against her chest once again.

They took a seat at the Gryffindor table, Parvati smiling coyly from her perch on the bench a few feet down. Lavender made to grab a piece of toast, but knocked hands with Seamus as he made the exact same motion. They smiled awkwardly at each other, Seamus gesturing for Lavender to help herself.

 _Seamus is my best friend and I am a strong, independent woman. Seamus is my best friend and I am a strong, independent woman._

As much as Lavender had hoped and dreamed for this day to come, she suddenly felt quite nauseous and had thoughts of regret pop in rapid succession through her head. What if this was a mistake? What if they weren't meant to be? She had never really considered even being in a relationship before. What if they broke up and she lost her best friend?

Suddenly, Lavender wasn't so hungry anymore.

Someone dropped onto the bench next to her, pulling her from her spiraling fears. Neville grabbed a handful of bacon, tossing it onto his plate before spooning some eggs next to the mound of meat. He turned toward the small group, a smile on his face.

"I think I've got it."

It took everything in Lavender not to roll her eyes. The first DA meeting was a success, with people from every house (except Slytherin) agreeing enthusiastically to reform the group. In his excitement, Neville mostly forgot to write things down, so many of his good ideas were either lost or repeated for days to follow.

Lavender and Seamus leaned in while Parvati scooted down the long bench, placing her elbows on the table and hoisting herself partially over. Neville, pleased that he had commanded the small audience, took a dramatic breath in.

"I think we should focus on the detentions."

Parvati, much to Lavender's joy, rolled her eyes and sat back into her seat. "Neville, you've said this three times in the past two days. We KNOW we should focus on the detentions-"

"Hear me out!" he interjected, waving his hands erratically into the air to cut her off. Grease flung from the piece of bacon he had pinched between his thumb and forefinger, flicking the remnants onto Lavender and Seamus. "We should start a patrol. I've been talking to my Gran who gave me some ideas from how the Order was run during the first war."

"Because that worked out SO WELL," Lavender responded with an eye roll of her own. "Neville, like half the original Order is dead."

Neville refused to be put out, merely shaking his head. "I know the war didn't end…favorably for many people, but they had some good ideas! Listen, detention rounds."

Seamus cocked an eyebrow as Ginny sat on the other side of Neville, buttering her own piece of toast before spooning oatmeal onto the plate in front of her. "Detention rounds?"

"Are we talking about more ideas that Neville is going to forget by noon?" Ginny asked smoothly, shooting a smirk over to Lavender and Parvati, who both nodded in response.

"Merlin, I'm telling you now so I don't forget!" Neville lowered his voice back to a whisper as Alecto Carrow sauntered by, readying for the breakfast ahead of her. "Detention rounds. We'll go in pairs. Make our rounds to the places where detentions would most likely occur. The dungeons, empty classrooms, their offices. Free the students who are being tortured."

Lavender choked on the piece of toast she had just bit into. "Neville," she managed to cough out as Seamus banged on her back, "that sounds like an absolutely TERRIBLE idea. What happens if we get caught ourselves?"

Neville seemed to contemplate it for a moment. "Well, Gran DID say that some Order members had their families killed, because the death eaters figured out who they were…"

The group groaned in response, leaning back into their seats.

"Neville, come on-"

"That could be US-"

"Their FAMILIES were killed?"

Ginny reached over, patting a dejected looking Neville on the arm. "I think it could be a brilliant idea. We just have to make sure to cover our faces so we don't get found out is all." Neville beamed at her, encouraged that at least one member of the group found his idea agreeable. "It should at least be discussed at the next meeting. Which, as another idea, we should begin to review defensive spells."

As much as Lavender pretended to be interested in the subject of the DA, she found herself becoming more nervous as Neville became more serious about it. She had known that Neville's parents were tortured to insanity by death eaters, a few of whom were now free from Azkaban, but her parents were quite clear that they wanted her to keep her head down and her nose clean.

Though she didn't argue, she also didn't understand it. Her parents had been vocal in the past about their involvement with the Order. Why did their hesitation start now?

"As much as I would love to keep going about this," Seamus finally butt in, tossing his last, half-eaten piece of toast onto the plate in front of him, "Lavender and I have a day ahead of us that I'm rather keen on starting."

Lavender caught Parvati's eye, who sent her another coy smile. Since the discussion of the Order and the DA began, Lavender had almost forgotten about her date with the Irish boy. She thought she was going to be sick again.

"Bye!"

"Have such a good time!"

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Seamus grinned at the group as Lavender got up from the table, slapping a forced smile onto her own face. She was quite sure it looked more like a grimace.

The walk to Hogsmeade was quiet and cold, the weather an outward reflection of how Lavender was feeling internally. Gray, gloomy skies spread from the mountains and over the lake, the brisk wind blew sharply through the trees. Winter was clearly on its way in, but it certainly didn't help to have dementors stationed at the entrance. Lavender made a feeble attempt at a patronus, but was overtaken by the forcefully negative effect of the creatures. Seamus pulled out his own wand, murmuring the incantation just in time for the two to pass between two small groups of dementors.

"A fox," Lavender said with a grin and a jealous sigh, taking a bar of chocolate from her pocket and breaking a piece off for each of them, "I haven't seen your patronus in so long, I had almost forgotten what it was."

"Good thinking on the chocolate," Seamus replied, taking a massive bite from the piece Lavender had handed to him, "I wouldn't have thought of that either. Seems we make a pretty great team."

As the two continued to chat, Lavender was beginning to feel much more comfortable. It was just her and Seamus, hanging out together like old times. Flirting relentlessly with each other, smiling and joking around. She didn't need to put a label on the day; she just needed to enjoy who she was spending it with.

Seamus pointed toward the Three Broomsticks, which was yet to be filled with students, as they were among the first out of the castle. Lavender nodded enthusiastically, ready to be out of the sting of the wind. Her mouth watered at the thought of a warm butterbeer. He held the door as Lavender scooted over the threshold, unwinding her scarf from around her neck and stuffing her gloves into the pockets of her cloak.

"Get us a couple drinks and I'll snag a table?" Seamus said, pushing a few coins into the palm of her hand.

"You got it boss," she replied with a smile, threading her way through the throngs of people that had begun to gather near the counter. Waving down Rosmerta, she put in their order and casually leaned onto the counter, glancing at the patrons around her. She furrowed her brow when she recognized someone, an old teacher that she hadn't seen in quite a few years.

"Professor Lupin?"

The man appeared much older than she had remembered him, she thought as he spun around in his chair. The blood ran from his face, paling him instantly, as he dropped the mug of butterbeer he had held tightly into his hand.

"Darling!"

"Professor! Are you okay?"

It was as if he had seen a ghost. His eyes widened as Lavender bent down to pick up the glass. A woman with dark purple hair that Lavender didn't recognize quickly pulled out her wand, siphoning up the butterebeer that had spilled.

"Nor-Hal-Lavender?" Lupin stumbled out, shaking his head and furrowing his brow tightly toward the middle of his forehead.

Lavender set the mug gently down onto the counter, eyeing him with concern. "I'm sorry, professor, I didn't mean to startle you-"

Lupin shook her off. "No, you just look exactly like- you know, never mind. Took me off guard is all." The woman, who was wearing a ring on her left ring finger, also was eyeing the ex-professor with concern. "I'm hoping things are going well with school?"

"Erm- yes," Lavender replied, grabbing her own butterbeers that Rosmerta had set in front of her, "just getting ready to start studying for the NEWT exams, typical student things."

Lupin looked at her in awe. She could have sworn he began to tear up in one eye. "NEWT exams already. Has it really been that long?"

Lavender chuckled. "Yeah, I mean, school whizzed by for me as well." She shrugged a shoulder. "I should be getting back…I'm kind of on a date, I guess."

He snapped his eyes over to Seamus, who was drumming his fingers mindlessly on the edge of the table. "On a date. Wow." He paused to sigh. "Makes me wonder how he would have taken to that news."

"I'm sorry- who are you talking about?"

Lupin pulled his eyes back to Lavender's, quickly shaking his head again. "Don't worry about an old man's musings, I tend to say things aloud to myself before I realize I'm saying them. You have a good Hogsmeade trip, Lavender. It was good to see you."

"You too, professor," Lavender replied with a small smile. As she made her way back to the table Seamus had saved for them, she couldn't help but think about the odd encounter. Was he going to call her by a different name? She shook her head. He had hundreds of students. How could she expect him to remember all of them?


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone! Nothing new from me. Thank you so much for continuing to be amazing.**

 **As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

 _You-Know-Who or the Chosen One?_

 _Muggle-Born registration has taken effect cross-country. The Ministry has been infiltrated. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has seen the changes, all student aged witches and wizards mandatorily being sent; the first year in its one-thousand-year history. Many of us who are against the rise of this "Dark Lord."_

 _That leaves many asking- where is The Chosen One? Our sources have been able to confirm that Harry Potter is currently seeking out ways to defeat You-Know-Who. To date, he has been spotted at the Ministry of Magic and, only rumored, to have been spotted in a woman's restroom on the south end of Ireland._

 _If you are lucky enough to spot the Chosen One, we implore you to not contact the Ministry of Magic, but to wish him well and allow him to continue his journey._

Lavender set down The Quibbler, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead as she passed the magazine to Parvati, who had been reading it over her shoulder.

"Isn't father brilliant?" Luna asked, beaming at the small group who had congregated at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. "He sent me an owl saying that he's the only editor to be writing negative things about the Ministry. So brave of him." She flounced away, leaving Lavender and Parvati to look at each other in disbelief.

"She doesn't realize how dangerous that is?" Parvati said, her eyes wide as she stared past Lavender toward the Head Table, where the Carrow siblings were busy stuffing oatmeal in their mouths, eyeing the students with indignation.

Lavender shrugged a shoulder, lowering her voice. "It is quite brave of him, though I wonder if stupid would be a better word to use."

The two went silent for a moment as Neville unloaded his shoulder bag onto the floor next to the table, where a second year Hufflepuff quickly tripped on it, sending her flying into a group of fifth year Slytherins. Lavender winced for her.

"I found some books that would be useful for you," Neville started, dragging his bag over to the bench, lifting three books out, and tossing them haphazardly onto the table. They were so heavy that Parvati's orange juice rippled in the goblet. "Charms for Beginners, Defense Against the Dark Arts: a Practical Approach, and Jinxes: How to Curse your Enemy."

Parvati picked up the first one, skimming through it with minor interest. "What are these all for? Surely, we all know how to do beginners charms…even you, Neville."

Neville went red at the ears before answering. "Lavender said she would assist in helping me develop a plan for the DA. You know, how Harry started with more beginner spells and moved up from there. Couldn't hurt to have a more practical approach to things."

Parvati turned to Lavender with her eyebrows furrowed. "I didn't know that you offered to help with the DA. It was under MY impression that-"

"I figured it wouldn't hurt," Lavender interjected as she grabbed the spell books and stuffed them unceremoniously into her own bag, "poor Neville seemed clueless at the first meeting, wasn't sure where to start off at."

It was true. Neville spent the first ten minutes stumbling over his own words before gaining the strength to at least quit stuttering, but he seemed to have no clue as to what he actually wanted to accomplish with Dumbledore's Army. He had the vision with no known path of how to get there. Lavender had insisted after the second meeting that he come up with a plan of defensive spells, which is how she had gotten roped into it in the first place.

The bell signaling the beginning of classes tolled and the remaining students in the Great Hall began to pack their things and head toward the exit. Lavender, Parvati, and Neville took their time finishing their drinks, as they all three noticed that Alecto Carrow was nowhere close to being done with the oatmeal in front of her.

Not wanting to suffer the wrath of the professor by being late, but also not wanting to suffer the social injustice of being forced to stand in the hallway with the seventh year Slytherins, the three slowly made their way out of the Great Hall, keeping a close eye on both Professor Carrow and Pansy Parkinson, who had created quite the connection in the past few weeks.

Seamus waved over Lavender with a giant grin on his face, saving her a seat near the back of the classroom. She scooted over to him, dropping her bag on the floor and sliding into the wooden chair. "I didn't see you at breakfast," she commented, not bothering to take out her parchment and quill. She hadn't taken notes all semester. "Everything okay?"

Seamus grinned again, gesturing toward his own shoulder bag, which was bursting to the seams with variously shaped objects. "Me order from Weasley Wizard Wheezes came in," he said quietly, a mischievous smirk that made Lavender's stomach flip grow on his lips, "couldn't risk the new Inquisitorial Squad confiscating the fireworks before they got into the castle, so I met the owl on the grounds near Hagrid's cabin."

Lavender didn't get the chance to respond, as Alecto Carrow burst over the threshold, snapping her wand at the door so it shut tightly behind her. Lavender always got a queasy feeling in her stomach whenever a class with a Carrow was on her schedule for the day. You never knew when a rogue Cruciatus curse or Stupefy spell would be whipped at you for nodding off or reading ahead in the book.

"Today's lesson we are continuing on with the witch trials," she said as she tapped the projector, gruesome photos of beheadings and burnings popping onto the screen at the front of the classroom, "where the muggles flushed out witches and wizards and killed them out of fear. It wasn't until 1947 that the Ministry of Magic-"

Lavender made an attempt to tune her out, not wanting to hear about how muggles were animals and how they should be treated like second class citizens compared to the magical community. She didn't want to hear about how You-Know-Who was preparing an overhaul of the Ministry, banning marriages between muggles and wizards or throwing young muggle-born children who exhibited magical qualities into prison for stealing their magic from squibs.

All she could think about was how her research with Ginny had taken a back seat to the DA in the last week or so, as Ginny had been recruited alongside Lavender to create a game plan for the members. Lavender was creating a curriculum and Ginny was attempting to recruit more students with Neville. So far, many of the younger students in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had agreed, most of them too young to fully understand what was happening in the magical world to begin with.

These thoughts of Sirius Black and his fiancée, as well as their lack of progress in finding any semblance of an article that contained the name of their daughter, consumed Lavender was the duration of the class. Luckily, Professor Carrow was more pleased with Crabbe and Goyle actively participating in class than she was with the vast majority of the rest of the seventh years merely staring out of the window or doodling the Slytherins dying in various ways. Including bitten by a vampire, attacked by a werewolf, and being strapped to the back of a troll.

The bell tolled an hour later and Lavender rushed out of class with Seamus, Parvati, and Neville on her heels. The four chatted until they stopped in the hallway just outside of Defense Against the Dark Arts…double Carrow classes left Lavender in an incredibly bad mood by the time her first break rolled around.

Parvati reached into her bag and pulled out The Quibbler, sneaking it over to Seamus. "Did you see what Luna's father published?" She paused as Seamus flicked through the magazine, his own eyebrows shooting into his hairline as he read the title of the article. "She seems to think it's brave."

"I don't know about brave," he said slowly in his Irish brogue, "definitely suicidal. I'm not so sure about brave."

"What do you have their, Finnigan?" Draco asked, a sneer on his face as he passed the group of four as the classroom door opened. He snatched the magazine from Seamus's hands and, before Seamus had the chance to snatch it back, Draco had already read the first few lines of the article. "Twenty points from Gryffindor, Finnigan, for bringing illegal material into the school."

"It isn't even illegal, you dolt," Lavender snapped back, managing to steal the magazine back from the Malfoy boy, "it's just The Quibbler, no need to get your panties tied in a bunch."

Draco fumed as the students surrounding him chortled at the exchange, his cheeks turning a dull pink. He was still trying to work his way back into the circle of death eaters, one he hadn't managed to break into yet. It was well known that he and his family were on the outs with the Dark Lord, for whatever reason.

"It isn't illegal now," he snapped back, "but it will be once I inform the headmaster that pieces as such are being snuck into the castle. He won't put up with that nonsense."

Parvati smiled humorlessly as she grabbed onto Lavender's wrist, which was poised perfectly (wand in hand) to send a bat-bogey hex or a jelly-legs jinx flying over to Draco at a moment's notice. "No sense in getting a detention for something so trivial," Parvati said with a sigh, taking the magazine from Lavender and tucking it back into her book bag, "it's just Malfoy."

Lavender rolled her eyes, placing her wand strategically back into the pocket of her robes. "He's just so infuriating. I wish I could just-" She stopped talking to gesture violently in the air behind Malfoy's back. "You would think that someone who lost favor with You-Know-Who would just keep his head down and quit trying to attract attention to himself."

Seamus snorted. "And when is Malfoy of all people going to ever stop trying to attract attention to himself?" They made their way into the classroom, again taking seats as far back as they could. "That's his middle name."

…..

The rest of the day went off, surprisingly, without a hitch and Lavender found herself crammed in the corner of the common room, surrounded by Transfiguration books as she studied for an upcoming exam on the latest material. She tucked a blonde lock behind her ear, the rest of her hair resting in messy bun at the top of her head.

She sighed in frustration, peeling her eyes from the book in front of her as she watched the flames dancing along in the fireplace. Sirius Black and Haley Brams. The names continued to haunt her, nearly always being at the forefront of her thoughts.

"Whatcha doin?'"

She jumped in her seat, tearing her eyes away from the fireplace as she snapped her gaze toward Seamus, who was leaning against a chair, his arms crossed over his chest, and a smirk donning his face.

"Did I scare you?"

Lavender replied with an eye roll, stretching her arms above her head. "Not a scare, merely a surprise." She glanced over at the clock. "It's nearly ten in the evening, what are you still doing awake?"

Seamus answered by lifting his book bag into the air, his smirk growing. "Planning on planting these bad boys in the courtyard tonight. I overheard Amycus telling Alecto that they were on guard duty. I was going to save them, but how can I pass up the opportunity?" He paused, surveying his best friend. "Would you like to join me?"

Lavender looked down at the work in front of her. She had managed to write her name in the corner of the parchment roll and read half a page of material in the last hour of her claiming the table. "You know…I think I will come with you."

Seamus shot her a surprised grin. "Really? Lavender Rose Brown…sneaking out of the common room with lil ole me?"

"Not if you say it like that," she replied with a grin, slamming her book shut and pulling her shoes back onto her feet.

He held his hands up in surrender, still quite surprised as Lavender led him out of the common room. The Fat Lady, who must have noticed the changes going on in the castle, stayed mum on their exit, most likely not wanting to bring attention to her house members sneaking out. For this, Lavender was grateful.

"So where to?" Lavender whispered as she snaked her arm around Seamus's waist, sidling up to him as they waltzed down the hallway. Seamus grabbed her hand, spinning her around as if they were dancing the Tango. She giggled in response as he placed an arm over her shoulders, sneaking into a secret hallway behind a large tapestry.

"The courtyard," he said, his voice hushed in the scrunched hallway. "Planting them around the front door and some of the columns. I was assured by the Weasley twins themselves that they would fire for at least three days and would triple in size if anyone attempted to jinx them."

"Sounds like we need to shoot them off, then."

Seamus turned to grin at Lavender once again, not paying attention as he went to exit the second tapestry on the other end of the secret passageway. Lavender, who had heard the muffled voices on the other side, pulled Seamus back just as the Carrow siblings stomped past.

"What was that?" Amycus asked gruffly, looking to his sister as the tapestry fluttered back into place behind her.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Probably just the breeze. Come on, one more round and we're done for the night."

Behind the tapestry, Seamus was staring at Lavender with a grateful glint in his eyes. Despite the cover of darkness the hallway provided, they were able to see each other only by the sliver of moonlight that snuck between the cracks of the tapestry.

Seamus dropped the bag, the fireworks hitting the flagstone floor with a dull thud, as he pulled Lavender closer to him, his lips slamming down onto hers for the first time in seven years.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello everyone! Thank you all so much for being patient with me. I realize my updating has been subpar recently. Between my surgery and going back to work, it's been a whirlwind! I've missed you all and I'm hoping to be back on a normal updating schedule now!**

 **Nothing new from me, thank you for your continued support! As always, leave a review on your way out!**

 **Read and Enjoy**

Lavender hadn't slept very well, replaying the kiss over and over in her mind. Yet, despite her lack of sleep and the obvious dark circles underneath her eyes, she couldn't help but feel awake; her heart clapping frantically against her chest when Seamus took a seat next to her at breakfast, sending her a wink that dropped her stomach to her butt.

It took all of Lavender's remaining energy to not touch her lips every moment of the day. She could still feel his lips on hers, his tongue gently asking for permission to entwine with hers. She couldn't help, but miss them.

It seemed like a silly concept to her, as she had never been one of those girls to obsess over a boy.

"Lavender? Laaaaaavender?"

She shook her head, pulling herself from her thoughts. "Wh-what?"

Parvati gave her a knowing look, then giggled. "Class is over," she replied, tossing her bookbag over her shoulder and backing toward the hatch that lay in the floor of the Divination tower. "Time to spend the next hour and a half with Professor Carrow." She pulled a face, causing Lavender to laugh as she gathered her own belongings, throwing them haphazardly into her bag.

They descended the ladder and had nearly made it halfway down the winding hallway before Parvati spoke again. "Is everything okay? You seem…distracted."

Lavender made a noise of partial committal from the back of her throat, but the truth was that she hadn't told Parvati about the kiss yet. It was so intimate, so dear to her, and something that she had been daydreaming about since her fourth year of Hogwarts that she didn't want to let go of the secret quite yet.

"I'm just…just thinking," she finally responded, turning a small smile over to her best friend as they rounded the corner to stand in front of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, "nothing in particular, just thinking."

Parvati shot her an odd look, but the professor opened the door just as she started to open her mouth. Lavender took the opportunity and sped over the threshold, pulling her blonde hair into a curly ponytail at the base of her neck. It took her another moment to realize there was something off about the classroom that morning- a group of first years huddled in a terrified group in the corner of the room.

"What are they doing in here?"

"Are they observing a NEWT class?"

"I wish we could have observed a NEWT class in our first year…"

Lavender dropped into her seat, swapping a suspicious look with Neville. It wasn't like Professor Carrow to kind-heartedly open up her class for a group of first years to watch. Neville turned his gaze back to the first years, his eyebrows furrowing with concern.

"Gots a treat for ya," Amycus Carrow started as he snapped the door shut behind Draco Malfoy, who was reluctantly dragging himself into the classroom, "pair up with a first year, today's lesson is practice."

It took seconds for the thought to set in, but Lavender pulled her face into one of disgust. "Practice?" she asked aloud, watching as Crabbe and Goyle leapt out of their seats, grabbing the upper arms of two first years who were trying their hardest to shrink into the crowd. "Practice what? We haven't learned anything."

Neville and Parvati shot her a glance. It was their fleeting looks that clued Lavender into what was happening around her. They had been learning about the cruciatus curse. "They want us to PRACTICE on FIRST YEARS?!"

Ernie MacMillian had, bravely, attempted to approach Amycus with the worry of it being an illegal and unforgivable curse, but he merely laughed the Hufflepuff off. "Don't ye think that the Dark Lord wants ye to know more about how to defend your magic against the mudbloods?" He paused long enough to snag a first year, throwing the trembling girl into the direction of Ernie. "You'll go first."

Ernie opened his mouth again to protest, but the small first year cut him off with a pleading stare. "They're-they're going to hurt my family," she said, her voice shaking as she clasped her small hands onto his forearm, "please, just do it. I can't let them hurt my little brother."

Lavender's heart broke into a million pieces as the first year's tone pierced through her ears. She couldn't believe that Amycus had physically threatened the first years into being guinea pigs for the NEWT students. She looked past Ernie, who was staring open-mouthed at the young girl in front of him, at the band of students who were clutching each other, tears streaming down their small faces.

"This is wrong," a male voice next to Lavender piped up, anger shredding through the air. "This is absolutely wrong. You can't force first years into this-"

"We can," Amycus interrupted, grabbing another first year and tossing him toward Neville, who caught the boy before his knees cracked against the stone floor, "and we will. The Dark Lord has been patient with ye, Neville Longbottom, because of your blood status." He flicked his eyes across the room, grazing his eyes over the determined looks of the older students. "But ye will learn how to produce a proper cruciatus curse before the end of the year."

Neville puffed out his chest and took a few steps forward, sinking his finger into the chest of Amycus Carrow. "I just want to know how much muggle blood YOU have running through your veins," he hissed out, a sly grin spreading over his lips. "Even your Dark Lord is half-blooded."

Amycus let out a shout of anger, tearing his wand out of his pocket and slinging it toward Neville. A blue jet of light shot out of the end of it and, before anyone could even react, Neville dropped to the floor, clutching his face in his hands.

The group of first years screamed in fear, cowering in their corner of the classroom. In the chaos, Seamus had managed to wrestle the two first years from Crabbe and Goyle. Ernie MacMillian and Susan Bones were ushering the crying students out of the classroom, trying to get them to safety.

"Don't you DARE talk about our Dark Lord in such a way," Amycus shouted, standing over Neville with his wand pointed directly at Neville's back, "he's been more patient than you've deserved and you DARE-"

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS."

A rush of relief spread over Lavender as Professor McGonagall stood in the threshold of the classroom, her presence casting an immediate shadow over the role Amycus was attempting to play. She swept over to Neville and placed a tight hand under his arm, hauling him to his feet in an impressive fashion.

"Longbottom, get yourself to the hospital wing-"

"He'll go when I say he goes," Amycus interjected, removing his wand from Neville's direction and pocketing it into his robes.

Lavender was certain she had never seen Professor McGonagall's lips become so tight as she drew her own wand from her robes. The seventh years remaining gasped, taking a step back. Even when Professor Umbridge was with them in Lavender's seventh year, she had never seen McGonagall pull her wand on another teacher. The room went silent as Amycus surveyed the wand pointed at him.

"Brown, Patil," McGonagall barked, not taking her eyes off of Professor Carrow, "take hold of Longbottom and bring him to the hospital wing." Lavender lurched forward, gently snaking an arm around Neville's waist. Though his hands were still clamped on his face, Lavender could tell there was a deep gash in his upper cheek. Blood leaked out from between his fingers.

"Come on, darling," Parvati muttered, taking Neville's elbow and leading him out of the classroom. Lavender looked back at the classroom, taking in the final glance of Professor McGonagall and Professor Carrow eyeing each other with contempt.

…..

Dumbledore's Army had started up again and, with the semester beginning to wind down, Lavender had made the decision to finally spend some time in the library working on various assignments for her upcoming classes.

At least, that was her original intent.

Positioning herself next to the window in order to watch the leaves fly from the trees in the chilly, fall wind when she got bored, it wasn't long before Lavender realized that she had also positioned herself directly across from the books containing all of the news articles from years past.

She tried to ignore it at first, shaking her head and delving into the Transfiguration text that lay open in front of her. She jotted down notes, flipped through the pages, and read the same sentence at least fifty times before she slammed the book shut, sighing in defeat as she leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest.

It had been quite some time, weeks even, since she had done any research at all about Sirius Black and Haley Brams. It had been pulling at her, but other things had taken precedence in both her and Ginny's lives.

Lavender pushed her seat back, the legs scraping against the stone floor, making her way over to the news articles. Sliding her index finger across the bindings of the books, she selected one from mid-1980 and began to casually flick through it.

It was reminiscent of how things were snowballing in the current war…disappearances, kidnappings, murders. The articles not only made Lavender nauseous, but also made her remember why she tried not to pay attention to the news in the first place.

Sighing once again, she placed the first book back and pulled a second off the shelf, again delving into the pages, scouring over the text with a fine-tooth comb. She didn't hear the person approach her from behind, jumping when they tapped her roughly on the shoulder.

"Oh, gosh! Parvati!" she said as she whipped around, clutching her hand to her chest as her heart beat rapidly against her rib cage, "what are you doing in here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, you completely missed dinner," Parvati replied, an odd look on her face as she attempted to peek over Lavender's shoulder. "What are you looking at?"

Lavender shut the book containing the news articles, shaking her head softly. "Erm- just a bunch of old articles from The Daily Prophet. Erm- it's just for Ancient Runes, it doesn't matter." Her stomach grumbled, she hadn't realized how hungry she was until Parvati mentioned dinner. "Shall we go to the kitchen to get food? I must have just lost track of time."

Parvati rocked on her feet nervously, clasping her hands in front of her. "Actually…we have a problem that I think takes priority."

Lavender cocked an eyebrow, placing the second book back on the shelf.

"It's Neville, Luna, and Ginny. They attempted to break into Snape's office to steal something. They were caught, I'm fairly certain they're in heaps of trouble."


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello everyone!**

 **I hope you've been doing wonderfully! No news from me. Just enjoy the new chapter!  
If you're new to this story, make sure you hop on over to my page and read the prequel In the Name of Being Honest! If you've been there, done that…then carry on!**

 **As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

"I am absolutely disgusted," McGonagall declared, her tone dangerously calm despite the muscle that twitched in her forehead and her mouth in a thin line, "never in my years at Hogwarts-"

"We were just trying to help-" Neville started, but he was quickly cut off by the professor.

"Be quiet, Longbottom. I'm not quite sure how you can defend yourself after getting into this mess."

The common room was silent as Lavender exchanged awkward glances with Parvati and Seamus. Ginny, Luna, and Neville had gotten caught attempting to sneak into Professor Snape's headmaster office right before dinner to steal the sword of Gryffindor.

They were reamed in front of the entire Great Halll, all of the students then being sent to their dormitories after a minimal supper. Slytherin sent dark glares over to Ginny and Neville as they made their way, heads hanging, to the Gryffindor table to be dismissed. Despite their best efforts, it was a miracle that they were merely let off with a trip to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid.

Lavender was certain they would be, at the very least, hung by their ankles in Filch's office, with the Carrow siblings slinging various curses at them. The Gryffindor house breathed a sigh of relief when Professor Snape announced their punishment over the empty plates. Lavender had glanced over to Amycus Carrow, who had clenched his fist in anger at the decision of his superior.

It was silent for another moment or two before McGonagall sighed, her shoulders slumping in defeat. She collapsed into the nearest armchair, rubbing her forehead. "I know this year has been tough for all of you," she started, sighing deeply as she glanced around to the students who had gathered in the common room, "for the upperclass students, you know this is not the Hogwarts you have grown up in. For the younger students…I hope to Merlin you are able to see how great Hogwarts could be one day."

She paused again, raking her eyes over each of her students, before landing on Neville and Ginny. "But stealing from the headmaster in the name of Harry Potter is not how we take back our school. Setting off fireworks on the grounds is not the way to resist the new authority."

At mention of the fireworks, Lavender shifted uncomfortably where she stood. Seamus flashed a bright grin, winking in her direction. Professor McGonagall stood from her chair, raising her chin as she continued to speak.

"We are Gryffindors. We will hold our heads high and we will continue to fight the injustice You-Know-Who has brought upon our wizarding world. I, and I hope many of you are as well, am ashamed by the part our Ministry has played in the rise of You-Know-Who. Our country has been a beacon of freedom to the wizarding world in the past decades, including being one of the first Ministries that allowed the marriage of muggles and magical people. I hope you will not remain silent as your friends, your classmates, and your fellow countrymen are rounded up and brutalized in a world that has recently fought so hard for equality-"

"Here, here!"

"Yes, Professor McGonagall!"

She took a deep breath. "But you cannot help win this war, you cannot be a voice in this dark world if you are dead." The silence was deafening once again, the clapping that had started died down in an instant at her last words.

A shiver went up Lavender's spine as McGonagall looked over all of them again, her stare hardening. "Be smart, be vigilant, and don't try to win this war on the whims of childish pranks." The guilt set heavy over Lavender's chest, remembering all of the times she had snuck out with Seamus. He didn't seem too bothered by it. "I will send down the kitchens for dinner to be brought up. You are welcome to the library and various classrooms for studying, but I hope that you will deter from testing the boundaries of this castle. The Carrows are not in an inviting mood." She glanced at Neville and Ginny over the tops of her glasses before departing.

The room instantly relaxed, many of the students turning back to their own conversations.

Lavender turned to Parvati, picking her bag off the floor and tossing it over her shoulder. "I'm going to go to the library, I've got some things to catch up on."

Parvati shrugged her shoulders. "I'll come with you. I've been putting off my charms essay like crazy and I-"

"No," Lavender rushed out, taking hold of Parvati's shoulders, "really, I- I mean, I just want to be alone right now. It's nothing personal, it's just-"

Parvati glared at her best friend, crossing her arms over her chest and popping her left hip to the side. "You've been doing this an awful lot lately," she said, raising her eyebrows dangerously high on her forehead, "slinking off in the middle of the day, doing research with Ginny of all people-" she tossed a nasty look over her shoulder to the redhead, "you're doing something-"

Lavender chuckled, trying to downplay the argument that was inevitable. "Parvati, it's nothing. It's just home-"

"Don't you say it's just homework!" she screeched, garnering the attention of half the common room. Lavender flushed in response, desperately trying to hush her best friend, "No one has as much homework as you claim to have. And, for Merlin's sake, you've stepped into the library more often in the past MONTH than you have in the last SIX YEARS at Hogwarts!" She paused, her glare growing deeper. "I'm supposed to be your best friend. I want to know what you're doing."

Lavender sighed, grabbing a hold of Parvati's upper arm and dragging her toward the portrait hole.

"What are you doing?! Get off me-"

The portrait shut with a snap behind them, instantly deafening the common room of students who had just started to eat the dinner McGonagall had sent up.

"Will you just be quiet? Merlin. I'm going to tell you what's going on, if you would pipe down!" Parvati instantly clammed up, gazing at Lavender with expectant eyes. Lavender sighed. "You're going to think I'm crazy." Parvati merely raised her eyebrows in a betting manner. "Okay fine. Awhile back I was researching for my Transfiguration essay when an article fell out of the book I was grabbing off a shelf in the library. It was this article about Sirius Black's death and it mentioned how he was preceded in death by his fiancée and how his daughter remains missing-"

"Yes, I know this, you ran off one mumbling about going back to the library-"

Lavender rolled her eyes, she knew it was a questionable idea telling her best friend about all of this. "Yes, yes I know. That day I went to the library and found another article, just this tiny paragraph really, announcing the death of his fiancée. Back in…when was it? 1981. Anyways, Ginny followed me. She- she knew Sirius Black when he was alive, she overheard us talking about it. She wanted to help me with the research, we've been trying to find the name of his daughter, but for some reason we can't find it."

Parvati held up the door to the library, lowering her voice to a whisper. "And why does this matter to you? This was…what? 16 years ago now? What does it matter?"

Lavender shrugged her shoulders, dropping her book onto the nearest desk with a thud loud enough to attract the attention of Madam Pince. She grimaced as the librarian turned back to her own book, continuing to glance up every so often to see if Lavender would disrupt the library again.

"I don't know why it matters. It's just…it feels strange to me. It feels…familiar. I can't explain it. All these years of my tea leaves being the same- family secrets and a betrayal. Parvati…I can't help, but feel like they're somehow connected. I can't tell you why, I can just tell you my gut feeling."

Parvati licked her lips, surveying her best friend. "Well, what can I do?"

"Wh-what?"

Parvati dumped her own bag on the desk, turning back to Lavender with a grin. "I may not understand it either, but you've been looking for answers for years now. Who am I, as your best friend, to turn down your feelings of a possible lead?"

Lavender smiled, truly smiled, for the first time in weeks.

….

The two girls were giggling to each other, their elbows interlocked, as they clambered through the portrait hole together just before curfew began. The common room had cleared out already, many of the students slipping to their beds after filling up on the feast McGonagall had sent up.

Lavender grabbed a small plate and lead the way back to an empty table, clearing off the leftover crumbs with a swipe of her wand. She carefully set down her plate of food with one hand and dumped the books she was holding in the other. Parvati had suggested they check out a few books containing various articles from 1981, so they would have more time to look through them after curfew began.

"Lavender!"

She swung around, her heart skipping a beat as Seamus jogged to her from the staircase leading up to the boy's dormitories.

"I've been waiting for you to get back. I've been wanting to talk to you about something."

Lavender smiled, her heart lighter than it had been in days since Parvati offered to help her. "What's going on, Seamus?"

He leaned nonchalantly against the wall closest to her, gazing at her with his brown eyes. He took a deep breath, running his fingers through his sandy hair. "Listen, I've been thinking a lot about this. I realize…it may be coming out of the blue for you…" Lavender waited patiently as Seamus took another breath, this one wavering as he let it out. "I've been wanting to tell you this for…for years now. What Professor McGonagall said…it put things into perspective for me. Lavender, I love you."

Her jaw dropped open, her heart jumping into her throat at the words that stumbled out of Seamus's mouth. She had been waiting since fourth year to hear them, especially through sixth year when she had made the mistake of dating Ron Weasley. As the thoughts swirled through her brain…as she began to come to the realization of the war, of the part she decided to play in the DA, in Sirius Black and how that seemed to consume her free time…

"Seamus, I- I can't."

The smile slid off his face as his cheeks grew pink with her response. "You can't?"

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she slowly shook her head. "This…this isn't a good time. Can't you see that? With the war, with the DA, with-"

"I think there is no better time," he interrupted, a coldness seeping through his tone, "but if that's the excuse you need to make for not feeling the same way-"

"Seamus, that has absolutely NOTHING to do with-"

"-Then so be it."

He turned on his heel, marching past Parvati, who had witnessed the entire thing with wide eyes. Lavender slumped back into her seat, pressing her leaking eyes into the palms of her hands. He couldn't understand, she couldn't understand. She thought it just wasn't their time.


	12. Chapter 12

**Well, hiiiiii everybody! It sure has been awhile hasn't it? I'm sorry to say, between work, writing my own novel, and a major writer's block with this one, it really took a toll on my mind and I needed to take a break from this story. Having reread the HP series (for about the MILLIONTH time), it reenergized my love for these characters and I decided to give it another go! I hope I do have some fans left. My thoughts were to finish this one and then re-write a part of In the Name of Being Honest in Sirius Black's POV? Would anyone be interested in that?**

 **I'll be posting another chapter this weekend, so be on the lookout for that! If you're new to this story, head on over to my profile where the finished story In the Name of Being Honest is…I'm sure this will make much more sense after that!**

 **I think that's it…as always! Read, review, and enjoy!**

" _Sources close to The Quibbler have stated that The Chosen One is not only researching ways to defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at this time, but actively traveling while doing so._

' _Harry Potter wouldn't just trapeze into the Ministry without a good reason," our source tells us, 'he's the most wanted wizard in the world right now. Can't imagine he would be that stupid for no reason.'_

 _While it's still coming to light why Harry Potter is continuing to travel through the country, it is important to remain quiet of his whereabouts and offer shelter if you come across him."_

Lavender rolled her eyes at the article, slamming The Quibbler down on the wooden library table. Sighing loudly, she turned back to the book containing the Daily Prophet articles from November 1982, not even close to halfway through them.

Xenophilius Lovegood was going to get himself killed, that was evident enough.

Flicking mindlessly through the hordes of celebratory articles from Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who, she thought more about Seamus' confession from days before. He hadn't even been able to look her in the eye the following morning and made it apparent that he had no intention of sitting near her during their shared classes that day.

Of course she loved him. She had loved him for years. She didn't understand why it had taken six years and an impending war for him to confess his feelings to her. Regardless of the Ron Weasley fiasco, which she was a hole she was still trying to climb out of, the universe seemed to find ways to continually dump on her.

"Why don't you just take a break?" Ginny hissed to her, eyeing the pages Lavender had scanned quickly, clearly not taking in any of the words. "Not like you're getting much done anyways."

Lavender shot her a glare, sighing deeply again. "It's a good distraction," she answered shortly, flaring her nostrils in a way that would make Professor McGonagall proud.

It was Ginny's turn to sigh. "Why DID you say no to Seamus anyways?" Her quill was hovered over the essay she was attempting to write, the ink dripping onto the parchment precariously. "I would have thought you would have jumped at the opportunity-"

"Why did Harry dump you?" Lavender shot back, quite meanly, her eyes boring into Ginny's. The red-headed girl closed her mouth, drawing in a deep breath through her nose. Lavender shook her head. "I'm sorry, Ginny, I…it's just been stressful. Everything has been so damn stressful."

Ginny laid down her quill, her hands shaking with anger. "Why are YOU so obsessed with Sirius Black?" she retorted, the tips of her ears rivaling the color of her hair. "He DIED. Almost TWO years ago. Why does all this matter now?"

Lavender dropped her gaze, licking her lips slowly as she let the words sink in. "When I was a third year, the first lesson we did in Divination was reading the tea leaves-" Ginny scoffed at her, opening her mouth to interrupt, but Lavender pushed on. "It all connects! Just listen, for Merlin's sake. YOU might not put much credit into Divination, but I do. My tea leaves have always read the exact same way- family secrets and betrayal. It doesn't matter what is happening, what time of day, whatever. It's always been the same. I've been so frustrated by it, so I started looking at other connections."

She paused for a moment, gathering the strength to get the next part out. She leaned in closer to Ginny, dropping her voice to almost a whisper. "Last year, Parvati mentioned a new theory to my tea leaves problem. What if Professor Trelawney didn't see the grim in Harry Potter's cup that first day? What if she saw what I've been seeing the misinterpreted it? And how could we find out? So I sidled up to your brother to get closer to Harry…in a way to gather information." She leaned back, shaking her head, as Ginny's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I'm not proud of it. It obviously backfired in the worst way possible." She paused one more time, taking a deep breath. "I just can't help, but think this whole Sirius Black thing is part of this somehow. I couldn't begin to tell you why. I just…I can't let it go. Not until I find everything out."

Ginny raked her gaze over Lavender's features, her eyes shooting down to the gold necklace Lavender had resting on her chest. She shook her head, her eyebrows still high on her forehead. "I can't say I approve of the methods you went with," she started, folding her arms across her chest, "but I also can't say that I blame you."

It was Lavender's turn for her eyebrows to shoot up. She was expecting Ginny to rip her to next Tuesday.

"I still think you're crazy," Ginny reiterated, picking up her quill and turning back to the essay in front of her, "but we'll find some answers. Merlin knows I'm just as nosey as you are."

A small smiled flit over Lavender's lips as she turned back to the book of articles in front of her.

…

The dinner bell rang shortly after and Lavender made her way down to the Great Hall with Ginny in tow. The two girls chatted about plans they had for the coming winter break, not much coming to mind, as neither sets of parents were going to allow them out of the house for long periods of time.

Lavender had a wrench in her gut thinking about leaving for break. Between the tension with Seamus and not having access to the articles in the library, she was sure she would spend the entire break anxious to get back to school.

She joined Parvati and Neville at the Gryffindor table, dropping her bag at her feet.

"Any luck?" Parvati whispered, turning to her with wide eyes. Lavender replied with a quick shake of her head, leaning forward to grab her goblet and take a sip of pumpkin juice. She nearly spit it out when she caught the eye of Seamus, who was seated a few students down from Neville. He turned away from her, engaging in conversation with a set of sixth year boys who had just joined the DA. Lavender's stomach clenched tightly.

This was exactly why she didn't want to get involved in the first place. Seamus was supposed to be her best friend; he was supposed to-

Alecto Carrow marched up the row between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw table, stopping briefly behind a seated student with bright blonde hair. Her hand shot out, gripping tightly onto Luna Lovegood's arm and hauling her to her feet, before dragging her to the front of the Great Hall.

Luna struggled to keep up, her shoes slipping out from underneath her. Her wand, usually tucked behind her ear, had clattered to the floor with the sudden movement.

Professor Carrow roughly released her at the foot of the steps that led up to the teacher's table, Luna fell to her knees with a sickening crack against the stone floor. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick exchanged worried glances.

"You come in 'ere," the professor started, calmly pacing the floor in front of Luna, who was seated on a step nursing her sore knee, "reading garbage and LIES-" She paused again, throwing the Quibbler down at Luna's feet. "-about our Dark Lord. You should be GRATEFUL for the opportunities he has given you."

Lavender scanned the Great Hall, watching Draco Malfoy for a moment. He lowered his gaze to his lap, not seeming to want to watch. Crabbe and Goyle, on the other hand, were almost drooling at the mouth waiting to see what would happen next.

Professor Carrow drew out her wand, pointing it at Luna threateningly. McGonagall hopped out of her seat to intervene, but was forced to sit back down by Amycus, who had snuck behind the chairs of the teachers in an attempt to stop any of them from stepping in. He kept a tight grip on her shoulder, his knuckles white.

"I want e'ryone here to see what happens when a family member decides to disrespect the Dark Lord." She opened her mouth, her wand still pointing straight at the chest of Luna, who was cowering on the step with her knees tucked under her skirt.

"NO!" Lavender heard someone shout, as the bench at the Gryffindor table bustled with activity. Neville shot out of his seat, running toward Luna with a look of fierce determination.

"CRUCIO!" Amycus shouted, her eyes wild as she peered down at Luna with a sense of power. Neville strode in front of Luna, yelling in great pain as the curse struck him in the hip, forcing him to his knees.

The students let out cries of protest. Seamus jumped to his own feet, drawing his wand on the Carrow sister. Various members of the DA followed suit, their wands pointed toward various people around the hall. The teachers sat back stunned, unsure what moves to make next.

"YOU STUPID BOY!" she screamed, sending a second jet of the curse toward Neville, this time hitting him in the stomach. He screamed out in pain again, his face screwed up in concentration as he fought his way back to his feet. "The Dark Lord appreciates your bloodline, but he grows increasingly weary of your protestin'," she shot at him, watching with disdain as he collapsed to the floor in front of Luna once again.

Professor Hagrid knocked his chair over he got up so quickly. Pushing Amycus out of the way, he circled the teacher's table and planted himself in between Alecto, Neville, and Luna. Crossing his arms over his chest, he glowered down at Alecto with a stare that sent chills up Lavender's spine.

"That's enough," he stated gruffly, leaning over to grab Neville and Luna by the back of their robes and hauling them to their feet. "Cursin' students based on their family's opinions! Teachin' unforgiveable cures and usin' 'em on firs years!" He pushed the two students behind him, shielding them from the Dark Arts professor. "This isn' how Hogwarts is ran."

Alecto's lips curled into a humorless smile as she pocketed her wand. "You jus' made a big mistake, professor." With that, she turned on her toes and marched back toward the doors of the Great Hall. Lavender and Parvati looked at each other with stunned expressions. What in Merlin's name could THAT have meant?


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi everyone! A new update, as promised. Nothing new on my end!  
As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

The weather continued to get darker and colder as winter moved closer to them, much like the feeling inside of the castle. The Carrows had been quiet since their outburst involving Neville and Luna, adding onto the unsettling feelings that wafted through the corridors leading up to winter break.

Lavender had been spending as much time away from the common room as she could to escape Seamus, except for the weekly DA meetings, which had attracted more and more followers since the incident in the Great Hall. She still didn't quite know what to say to him, despite the many attempts from Parvati to get them to talk to each other.

The day before they were meant to leave on the train, Ginny, Parvati, and Lavender were holed up in a corner of the library, the only students in the vicinity, as most were lounging around the castle in groups, attempting to relax after stress of the semester-ending exams.

Frustrated by their lack of progress, Lavender slammed a book shut and jammed it back in the bookcase with a sharp sigh. She grabbed another one, tossing it onto the table Ginny was seated it, making her jump.

"Merlin, Lavender," she said exasperatedly, rubbing the elbow that she had slammed into the wooden table in shock, "Madam Pince is going to have us throw out if you keep making THAT much noise."

Lavender groaned softly in response as she sank into her chair, laying her head on the cover of the book, her blonde curls splaying out onto the table. "We've been at this for MONTHS. We're no closer to this than we are to bringing Dumbledore back from the dead."

Ginny snorted humorlessly, flicking another page over in the book she had sitting in front of her. "I actually feel like we're much closer to bringing Dumbledore back than-" she paused, sucking in a breath excitedly. "Oh…oh, Merlin. I think I've got it!"

Lavender and Parvati's heads shot up, Lavender shoving her blonde curls over her shoulder as she swung around to face Ginny. "Wh-what? Got what?"

The red-head, an ear to ear grin plastered on her lips, swiveled the book around and shoved it toward Lavender. Her finger was planted on a small article dated for the end of November in 1982. It was just the type of article Lavender would have overlooked in frustration.

She pulled the book excitedly toward her, running her finger down the old parchment as her heart beat frantically against her rib cage. Ginny had already shot out of her chair and was thumbing through the books in another row.

 _The trial for Haley Brams, the fiancée of notorious mass-murdered Sirius Black, who had been recently murdered by the followers of You-Know-Who for information regarding his disappearance, has begun as of this week._

 _While the murders are expected to live out the rest of their lives in Azkaban, despite the elevated status of Haley Brams in the circle of You-Know-Who, because of Sirius Black, there still is some speculation for the disappearance of their daughter, Nora Black._

 _Nora, born on August the 4th in 1981, has become yet another statistic in the disappearances of children in the war with You-Know-Who and his followers. While the murderers of Haley Brams deny any child being present in the house at the time of her murder, there is reason to believe they aren't quite telling the truth._

 _Next of kin, Remus Lupin of Cardiff, has requested any information regarding the whereabouts of Nora Black be owled to him._

The article was accompanied by a photo of the couple, Sirius Black and Haley Brams, snuggled closely together and gazing at the camera with wide smiles. Lavender stared at the picture, her heart swelling with excitement for the first time in weeks. Nora Ann Black. They had found her.

Ginny scrambled back to the table, slamming a second book in front of Lavender and Parvati with a victorious "HA!" It was opened to a copy of a birth certificate, labeled Nora Ann Black. The signatures of Sirius Black and Haley Brams were scribbled across the bottom of the parchment.

"Sirius Black was acquitted of any dark art activity, wasn't he?" Parvati pondered aloud, her gaze raking over the birth certificate once again.

"Post humously," Ginny said with a sigh, snagging the top book off the table before snapping it shut, "such a shame. He died a hero. Along with hating You-Know-Who with every fiber of his being. He didn't deserve the life he had after James and Lily Potter died."

Lavender was quiet a moment, thoughts of Sirius Black running through her head.

"What was he like?" Parvati spoke up first, asking the question softly.

"Who?"

"Sirius Black."

It was Ginny's turn to go quiet, a blank look dusting her features. "He was…kind. Gentle. Probably the most charming person I have ever met. He fought fervently for what he believed in, at least when I knew him. Protected the Order kids with such a ferocity. And Haley…" She stopped to sigh, Parvati mimicking her with a look of deep longing attached to it. "He only talked about her the one time, but you could just tell he was still in love with her after all those years. She was Harry's godmother, Sirius told me so himself." She paused again to look at the article that was open between them, her head tilting to the side. "Actually…" she drifted off, setting down the book that was in her hands on the library table.

"What in Merlin's name are you-?" Lavender started as Ginny picked up the article from the book and shoved it next to her head. Lavender leaned back, swatting the parchment back onto the table. "What are you doing?!"

"You look EXACTLY like Haley in this picture," Ginny said, her eyebrows furrowed. "How eerie."

"Come off it," Lavender said with a shake of her head. "You're just pulling my leg now."

"No, REALLY!" Parvati jumped in, heat building up behind the tone of her voice as her eyes flicked from the article to Lavender's face. "Your blonde, curly hair. Your brown eyes. Wow, even your lips look identical to Sirius's."

Lavender snorted incredulously in response. "Now you're just seeing things that aren't there!"

Ginny laughed, pulling her red hair into a ponytail at the back of her head. "I am not just seeing things," she retorted, "I'm being serious! You could easily have been her sister."

Lavender peered down at the picture again, cocking her head to the side. The blonde hair, the brown eyes. Those were traits familiar to people across the world. Her cheekbones were at a similar height to Sirius's…and her lips were definitely the same shape. She scanned the article again, her eye catching on something she hadn't noticed before.

"Her birthday, it's the same as mine."

Ginny's eyebrows furrowed even deeper. "Come again?"

Lavender pushed a finger to the birthdate of Nora Black, August the 4th of 1982, and slid the article toward Ginny. "We share a birthdate. Look."

Parvati pulled in a sharp gasp, clutching onto Lavender's forearm. "You look NOTHING like your parents." She stopped to look at Ginny. "I mean, NOTHING like her parents. They both have dark hair, low cheekbones, light eyes-"

"My mum says blonde hair runs in the family!" Lavender tried to interject, but she was steamrolled by Parvati and Ginny's excitedness.

"They share a birthday," Ginny pressed on, pointing toward the article again. "And she looks like a twin to Haley." She turned to Lavender. "I mean, really, Lavender-"

"And the tea leaves!" Parvati jumped out of her seat, clapping her hand against her forehead, her brown plait swinging wildly behind her back. "The tea leaves. Family secrets and betrayal. What if this is what you were reading in the tea leaves all along!?"

The two Gryffindors looked excitedly at Lavender, expecting her to be on the same level as they were. She peered between the two, shaking her head quickly. "No…NO, come on guys. There is NO WAY I am Nora Black. I just…there isn't…" She looked exasperatedly at Parvati, flicking her blonde locks behind her shoulder once again.

Ginny shoved a finger into the locket that hung around Lavender's neck. "When did you get that?"

Lavender laid a hand protectively over her locker, swatting Ginny's finger out of the way. "My parents gave it to me. I've had it as long as I can remember."

Parvati and Ginny glanced at each other again before Parvati spoke up. "You've had a locket with the letters NB etched into it for as long as you can remember?" She shook her head. "Lav, we've been best friends for almost seven years. I've never seen you a day without that locket. Ask your parents when you get home where you got it and why it doesn't have YOUR initials etched into it."

A ball of discomfort squirmed in the pit of Lavender's stomach. The dots were starting to connect; she couldn't deny it. The same birthdate, the strange similarities between her and Haley Brams, the locket with the initials of Nora Black that hung around her neck. And the tea leaves…family secrets and betrayal.

She sighed deeply, crossing her arms over her chest. "Okay, fine," she relented, rolling her eyes as she gathered her book bag and swung it over her shoulder. "Just to prove your insane theory wrong, I will ask my parents when I see them about the locket and Sirius Black. Don't get too excited-" she added in quickly at the look on Parvati and Ginny's faces. "It's merely to prove you wrong, remember that."


	14. Chapter 14

**Nothing new again! Thanks so much for the reviews, you are all so wonderful. Keep them coming!**

 **As always, read and enjoy!**

Resting her head against the window of the trundling train, Lavender contemplated the conversation she had with Ginny and Parvati the night before. The sky was growing dark and the farms growing fewer and far between, indicating their arrival to the King's Cross was impending. Despite being so vocal against the idea of being the lost daughter of Sirius Black, she couldn't help but ponder the thought now.

It was quite the coincidence that her locket bore the initials of the lost girl, much more of a coincidence than she would like to have let on.

Luna, Neville, and Ginny were playing what seemed like their twentieth game of Exploding Snaps as Parvati napped in the corner opposite Lavender, curled into a ball with her head resting on her cloak. The train shuttered, slowing down noticeably for the first time since leaving Hogwarts.

"Thank MERLIN," Ginny groaned, leaning back against her seat, rubbing her stomach vigorously. "I am starved. I'm getting too old to be living like a nine-year-old on a road trip with all this candy."

Neville bit into a chocolate frog. "Fpeak for yourflef," he muttered, his mouth full of chocolate. Luna giggled, placing a delicate hand over her lips.

Lavender looked confused, darting her eyes through the window. The train was undeniably slowing down, snow flickering down the from the cloudy sky. But the landscape was still heavy with trees and unmowed grass, things not commonly found as they neared the London station.

"This isn't right," Lavender piped up, wiping her fist on the window where fog was starting to gather from the heat of her body being so close, "we aren't there yet. I haven't even seen the suburbs of London…"

Neville and Ginny exchanged glances as she stopped rubbing her stomach out of hunger. The train shuttered to a stop in the middle of a field, no city scape visible at all. Parvati yawned, stretching her arms above her head. "There already?" she said thickly, rubbing her eyes as she sat up.

Lavender pushed her way to the compartment door, opening it slowly before sticking out her head. Students around her were doing the same thing. She noticed Colin Creevey, a fellow Gryffindor in Ginny's year, peering down the corridor with the same expression as everyone else.

The door suddenly slammed shut, nearly taking off Lavender's fingers, as she was pitched backwards into her seat. She landed painfully on Ginny's lap as the lamp flickered before shutting off completely. She felt Ginny shiver as she scooted into her own seat.

"Lumos," she said quickly, taking her wand out of the pocket of her jeans. The wand lit up, dully illuminating the faces of the people she was sharing the compartment with.

"Do you think it's another dementor search?" Parvati asked, her teeth chattering with nerves as she crossed her arms over her chest. Neville shrugged his shoulders, illuminating his own wand to give the compartment more light.

The door banged open. Ginny and Parvati shrieked out of fright, as Lavender and Neville rose to their feet, their wands extended out in front of them, ready to attempt a patronus charm.

"Expelliarmus!" The person at the door said easily and Lavender's wand clattered to the floor of the train. "Don't be stupid. We're just here for one little thing."

Luna, who had been gazing wondrously up at the scene unfolding in front of her, let out a scream of terror as the man grabbed her from under the arm and hoisted her to her feet. Neville and Parvati lunged at the door, snatching wildly at Luna's sweater as she was pulled over the threshold of the compartment.

"NO! LUNA! NO!"

"LUNA!"

"BRING HER BACK HERE!"

Lavender scrambled for her wand, turning quickly toward the door as the lamps flickered back on.

"Let this be a reminder for any of you who dare defy the Dark Lord," the man hissed behind his mask. He turned on his feet, still gripping tightly to Luna. Her squeal was cut off as the man apparated out of the train. Loud pops from down the corridor indicated the several other death eaters had gone at the same time.

"NOOOO!" Neville shouted, wrapping his arms around what was now thin air.

Lavender sat back in her seat in complete disarray and shock as the train began chugging forward again, rattling down the tracks as if nothing had happened.

….

The shock of Luna being kidnapped directly off the train had shocked Lavender and Parvati down to the core, as they busted out of the barrier from Platform 9 ¾ arm in arm with tears staining their cheeks. Ginny peeled away from them, folding herself into her mother's arms as they hurried down the station, trying to get home as quickly as possible.

Neville, on the other hand, had an angry expression set on his face, merely grunting at his gran, who had taken Trevor's cage and followed him off the platform without a second thought. Neville had screamed himself hoarse, running up and down the train for the last hour as he rifled through the various compartments, hoping the death eaters stashed her somewhere else as a horrible joke.

Lavender gave Parvati one last squeeze as her father took her luggage from her hands.

"Come on, darling," her mother beckoned her quickly, her eyes flitting nervously around the platform.

"Don't forget to ask," Parvati hissed in her ear, thumbing at her locket before giving her a stern gaze and meeting Padma at the other end of the station platform. Lavender nodded, her thoughts with Luna instead of Sirius Black, as she followed her parents toward the car that was parked in the lot outside of King's Cross.

With the help of her father, she loaded her trunk into the back of the car, shivering against the snowy breeze that was blowing in. She pulled her jacket closer to her body as she clambered into the backseat, her mother already in the car tapping the heater with her wand.

Her father climbed into the driver's seat, fumbling the keys with frozen fingers, as he pushed them into the ignition and turned. The car roared to life and it wasn't until they were on the main road that her mother spoke through the silence.

"How was first term, darling?" she asked, peeking over her shoulder toward Lavender.

Lavender looked closely at her mother, studying the shape of her eyes and the curve of her lips. Nothing looked familiar to her, when she thought of her own face in the mirror. Not the straight, dark hair both of her parents possessed. Not the round, light eyes in comparison to her own brown, bright ones. Not even the thin lips both of her parents possessed, much to the contradiction to her fuller ones.

She lifted her hand, clutching onto her locket with, before taking a deep breath. "Mum, dad. How did I get this locket?"

Her mum didn't waste a moment in answering. "It's just a family heirloom, my love." She smiled back from the front seat. "Passed down through the years, is all."

Lavender squinted her eyes in thought, not quite sure what to make of the sudden answer. "Does it have anything to do with Nora Black?"

Her father almost rear-ended the car in front of them. If there was any indication of a response, the one she gave was clearly unexpected. "How do you know the name Nora Black?" he asked, an almost frightened look in his eyes as he gazed into the rearview mirror at her.

"How do YOU know the name Nora Black?" Lavender retorted, a slow burning rage starting to boil in the pit of her stomach. She had expected to be laughed off, to be told they had never heard that name before in their lives. That wasn't the case.

"Darling," her mother started slowly, "I think this is something we should discuss at home-"

"I think this is a fine place," she shot back, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared up at her parents from the back seat, "we're sitting in traffic, we have nothing else to talk about. Oh, and Sirius Black had a DAUGHTER with my birthday, a fiancée who looks exactly like me, and I so happen to have a LOCKET WITH HER INITIALS ON IT." Lavender was panting by the time she had finished, anger rising in her so quickly she almost didn't know what to do with it.

She hadn't even considered giving the theory Parvati and Ginny had latched onto a second thought, didn't think it was even a possibility that this could come to a head. She had the nasty feeling in her heart, though, that her entire world was on the verge of toppling over.

Her mother sighed, rubbing her eyes before turning to her father. "I thought this was over when Remus became her teacher in the third year," she said, suddenly looking as though she had aged fifteen years. "I thought he would say something to her and we would be found out."

She leaned forward, clutching onto the shoulders of her mother and father just as her father turned to pull into the driveway of their home.

"I just need you to say it," Lavender managed to seethe through her teeth. She clambered out of the car, following her mother and father to the porch of their home, stomping through the puddles of the half-frozen snow. "You know the true and I think I should know too. Are you my real parents? Did you adopt me? Where did this locket come from?"

Her father ushered her inside, quickly shutting the door with a snap. "If the death eaters knew. If You-Know-Who and his inner circle knew you were alive and where you've been hiding-"

"Dad."

"-No, you need to know this." He paused to shut his eyes, taking off his own glasses to press his palms into his sockets. Her mother looked to be on the verge of tears. It only aggravated Lavender more. "Back during the first war, it was…it was awful. People were dying, being kidnapped, going into hiding-"

"Yes, I know all of this," she said sharply, interrupting again.

"No, no you don't!" her father snapped back, looking to her mother for support. She bustled around the kitchen, putting a kettle of water on the stove for tea. He signed, turning back to her. "Haley and Sirius were about as involved in the Order as you could get. Once Sirius went to prison and You-Know-Who was vanquished, the death eaters began attacking Order members for information. Haley knew this and she, with the help of Dumbledore, put her daughter into hiding…with us. She was killed shortly after."

Lavender sank into a chair at the kitchen table, the blood leaving her face. "So, what- what are you saying? That I'm…that I'm their daughter?" Her breathing doubled, her chest felt heavy.

Her mother's head dropped, tears forming in her eyes as the kettle whistled behind her. "Darling, you are OUR daughter," she said, wrapping her hands around her husband's arm. "You will always be OUR daughter…" She trailed off, unsure of what to say next.

"So…so my locket?" she stuttered out as she lost the feeling in her hands and feet. Her head was light. There was a possibility she was going to pass out. Looking around the kitchen, at the people who stood in front of her, the people who raised her. Everything felt like a lie.

"It was a gift," her father cleared his throat, "a gift from Lily Potter…your godmother. She…she and James Potter gave it to you before they died. You…you were very special to them."

She sat quietly for a moment, trying to soak in all the information. The tea leaves, the locket, the familiar feeling every time Sirius and Haley were mentioned to her. It all came together, it all started to make sense. "Does anyone else know?"

"I-it's very dangerous information to have," her mother started, striking her gaze over to her husband again, "if the death eaters knew of your survival…"

"Does anyone else know?" Lavender repeated in a more demanding tone this time.

"Remus Lupin," her father answered quickly, ignoring the shooting looks he was receiving from his wife.

"I want to talk to him," Lavender said, standing quickly from her seat. "I want to know EXACTLY what he knows. I know you have his address."

Her mother opened her mother to protest, but her father quickly summoned parchment and a quill, jotting down the address. In a flash it was in Lavender's hands and, with a quick turn of her heel, she was gone.


	15. Chapter 15

**SURPRISE!  
Decided to do a second chapter before the weekend. I'm moving, so I wouldn't be able to post before then. Wanted to make sure you guys got your fill in.**

 **As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

Lavender's feet hit the pavement, the rain mixed with snow immediately soaking through her sneakers as she stood in front of a tiny cottage plopped in the middle of a muggle neighborhood. Glancing down at the address on the parchment in her hand, she double checked it against the numbers on the cottage before taking a deep breath and walking past the white picket fence, into the garden path that led to the front door.

The snow had turned to steady stream of rain, which rolled off the roof of the cottage and splattered in large plops onto the flower boxes that sat haphazardly on the windowsill. Anger fueling her once more, she knocked heavily on the wooden door.

There was movement behind the curtain of the living room before the door opened a crack, revealing a tired, yet taken aback Remus Lupin just over the threshold.

"Lav-Lavender Brown?" he said in an unsure tone. "What an unexpected surprise."

She slid a thumb under the locket, thrusting it upwards at him through the crack in the door. "You and I both know that isn't my real name, professor," she responded coolly, so angry that she didn't even find the slightest satisfaction in the blood draining from his scarred face.

He threw open the door, ushering her inside quickly, before snapping it shut behind her. The inside of the cottage was cozy, a fire burning in the hearth on one side of the living room. Down the hallway, she could hear the fussing over a baby and the cooing of his wife. She stood awkwardly just over the threshold of the door, her jacket dripping water onto the wooden floors.

She looked into the blue eyes of Remus Lupin. "You knew," she started shortly, peeling off her coat and tossing it on the floor near the door. She had a feeling she would be here awhile. "You knew all along, for years. Not once did you say-"

"I had my doubts, Lavender," he said slowly, gesturing toward an armchair by the fire. She slowly made her way into the living room, sinking into the armchair across from him. His wife, accompanied by a bright blue-haired boy, entered the room from the hallway. "Tonks, please," he said, pointing toward Lavender with pleading eyes.

His wife (Tonks was her name?), slipped back into the dark hallway immediately, seeming to understand the importance of the conversation.

"You still knew," Lavender went on bitterly, "you taught me in school…you-you saw me in Hogsmeade." Tears started to pool in her eyes as the gravity of the situation at hand weighed heavily down onto her shoulders. She closed her eyes, quickly swiping at them with the back of her hand. "What was my name, professor? You still know it. What. Was. My. Name."

Remus sighed, tears beginning to prick in the corners of his own eyes. "Nora Ann Black."

She sucked in a deep breath before breaking out in sobs that wracked her entire body. Burying her face into her hands, she had doubled over, nearly placing her head between her knees. The tears didn't stop, no matter how hard she tried. She inhaled, trying to calm herself, only to double over once again, the sobs so deep she thought her heart was going to explode.

Remus had hurried over, collapsing onto his knees in front of her. He placed one hand over top of hers, another patted her blonde, curly hair as he placed his forehead onto hers.

"Oh, Merlin, Nora…Lavender, I'm so sorry," he started, attempting to tuck the loose locks of her hair behind her ears. "You shouldn't have found out like this. You should have been able to-" He trailed off, not sure what to say next.

"I…don't…even…know…who…I…am…any…more…" Lavender managed to sputter out between sobs. She dropped her head back into her hands, doubling over once again. Remus gently grabbed her wrists, forcing her hands off of her face.

"I found your mother," he said as soon as she made eye contact with him, "She was my best friend and I found her-" he broke off, tears pooling in his eyes once again. "I should have told you. I should have told Sirius. I was afraid it would force him out of hiding, get him in trouble by looking for you. I shouldn't have kept it a secret. That's my biggest regret. He died and he should have known you."

He hung his head, still clutching onto her wrists. The two of them cried silently together for a few more minutes. Lavender, for the family she could have known and didn't. Remus, for the family he kept from her purposefully.

"I thought- I thought I was doing the right thing when Dumbledore told me to not say anything," he started again, shaking his head as he scooted back into his own armchair. "Keeping you safe, keeping you away from the Order. That was my top priority. I couldn't keep my best friend safe, but you-" He paused, contemplating her quietly. "You look exactly like her."

He stood slowly from his seat, his hands shaking from the nerves. "I-erm- I have something for-for you, actually." He paused for another moment, looking at her again, before disappearing into the hallway. He returned in a heartbeat with a leather bound book in his hand. He looked down at it, smiling slightly, before handing it to her. She took it gently, looking down at it in confusion. "Haley-erm-your mother, she made that. Put it together when she was pregnant with you."

Lavender opened it carefully, watching the pictures wave at her. There was James and Lily Potter, clear as day. Lily was hugging a girl with curly blonde hair and bright, brown eyes. Haley. Her mother. Haley had her hand laced tightly with a younger, very handsome Sirius Black. His hand was clapped on a younger Remus, whose face wasn't quite as scarred yet.

"That was-erm-seventh year. End of," he said carefully as she turned the page, pausing briefly on a list with various initials signed off on each thing. "That's how your parents met, you see. Haley had a list of things she wanted to accomplish before end of schooling. Your dad, erm, Sirius, I mean. He-he rather forced himself onto her." He paused to chuckle, causing Lavender to smile slightly through her tears. "We all knew Sirius was in love with her before he did. Took almost all of seventh year to get him to admit it."

The pictures moved onto Lily and James Potter's wedding. Through the years with various people in and out. Lily, Haley, and another woman posing pregnant together. "Alice Longbottom-erm- Neville's mother," Remus explained as she paused to look at the picture.

"I really do look like her," Lavender said with a smile, looking up at Remus with genuine happiness. Remus seemed to relax.

"Yes, it really is quite eerie, isn't it?"

The pictures evolved as the babies, Harry, Neville, and her, were born. Playing together. Neville slowly disappearing out of the frames, becoming more and more Harry and her focused. There were pictures of Sirius kissing her plump cheek. Pictures of James holding her on his knee. Pictures of Lily feeding both her and Harry at the same time.

"So, Harry…Harry should be, what? My childhood best friend?" she asked slowly as she turned the pages.

"If Sirius and James had it their way," Remus said with a laugh, "I'm fairly certain you two would be the next Fred and George Weasley." He paused to sigh, watching her flip through the rest of the book. "I never stopped looing, you know. For you. I looked for twelve years until Dumbledore told me. I thought-I thought you should stay in the family, if you could."

Lavender closed the book and held it against her chest, a smile curving her lips. "I think I would have quite liked that," she replied softly, running a hand gently along the leather cover, "my mum and dad were great, but-" She stopped to find the right words. "I think I would have liked to know…Haley and Sirius."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement in down the hallway. Tonks had reappeared in the threshold of the living room, rocking a small infant whose hair was now a neon green. Lavender grinned at the woman, sighing delicately. "Hello," she started, waving awkwardly before clutching the book once again, "I'm Lavender-erm-Brown. I think."

The woman chuckled, joining Remus by sitting on the arm of the chair. The small boy cooed in her arms. "Tonks, well, Nymphadora," she responded, smiling warmly down at her, "but you can call me Tonks. This is Teddy, our son."

Lavender leaned forward to rub the small boy's back and he cooed again, his hair changing from the neon green to a deep purple.

"I know of some people who would be quite anxious to meet you," Remus broke the silence after a few minutes, "if you wanted to come around again. Say, the day after Christmas?"

Lavender smiled again, nodding her head. "yeah-erm-okay, that sounds good." She extended her arm out, her hand grasping the photo album, but Remus shook his head.

"That's yours now. Keep it. Your mother made it for you."


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello everyone!**

 **First of all, thank you to the people who corrected me in the birth of Teddy Lupin. I had looked at my notes wrong. More than anything, I'm impressed that so many of you caught it! Always appreciate the dedication my readers have to the HP series!**

 **No other news from me. As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

After her meeting with Remus, she had apparated back home, only to find her mother and father waiting anxiously for her to return. They were settled into seats in the dining room, both clutching cups of lukewarm tea tightly in their hands.

She walked up to her mother, embracing her tightly first, and then her father. Silent tears streamed down their faces as she took a seat between them, placing the leather photo album on the table. "Professor Lupin…Remus…he told me everything," Lavender started slowly, running her fingers along the binding. "I-erm-I'm not quite sure who I am any longer, to be honest with you."

Her mother reached out, grasping her forearm and giving it a gentle squeeze. "You are Lavender Brown," she said cautiously, rubbing her thumb along Lavender's wrist, "but you are also Nora Black. YOU are the same person."

Lavender sniffed, nodding her head. "At first I was so angry. I still am," she started, sending small smiles to her parents, "I want to know what they were like. I want to know what I missed having them alive and in my life." She paused to take a deep breath. "But I don't want to take away from what you've given me." Her tears streamed faster, the beginnings of the wracking sobs hiccupping through her chest.

Her father clutched her shoulder, shaking her slightly as he pursed his lips. "The possibility of having what you could have had was taken away from you so young," he responded, moving his hand from her shoulder to tap onto the book, "I hope you find what you're looking for. But just know, we will still be here as your parents to help you along the way."

….

Lavender had almost memorized the contents of the book in the week leading up to Christmas. She heeded Remus Lupin's word and didn't put into any owl the information that had come to light in the last few days. She didn't want death eaters banging on the door of her parent's house.

She locked herself in her room, staring for hours at the moving photographs of her biological mother and father. She was mesmerized by their chemistry, by their smiles. How they fawned over her as an infant.

She was often ripped in two by the guilt of it. By the happiness she was feeling for finally being able to know them. By the sadness that knotted in her stomach for feeling as if the family she had grown up in wasn't enough.

Her father had kept to his word and had answered any questions she had. They had conversations long into the night on what the first war was like, how did Dumbledore come to recruit Sirius and Haley. He referred to Remus, imploring her to write down her questions for him, whenever the topic of their personal relationship came up.

Her mother, however, was having a very hard time with it. Lavender had heard her crying in the middle of the night, asking her father why she wasn't enough. It broke Lavender's heart, even sent her reeling as to why she couldn't let all of this go.

She just knew, at the pit of her stomach, she needed to find out as much as possible about her family. It was imperative to healing the hole in her heart, the hole that had started to grow at the end of sixth year.

She was lucky, in a sense, that both of her parents were scheduled to work back at the Ministry the day after Christmas. It left slipping off to Remus's much easier without the sorrowful eyes of her mother following her out of the house.

She turned on her feet after fastening her cloak, landing with a thud just outside of the white gate that surrounded the house. With a deep breath in, the cold air pressing sharply against the back of her throat, she made her way to the front door and knocked briskly.

The door cracked, Remus's eye peering out, before it swung wider and he ushered her inside. "Keep your cloak on," he instructed with a smile as he bent down to drop a letter onto the side table closest to him, "we're leaving right off. The people who I'm taking you to see…I haven't seen them myself in about sixteen years. I wrote to them after you left, but they don't know you're coming with me."

Lavender furrowed her brow, looking at Remus with concern. "Who are we going to see?"

Remus grasped her shoulder. "Your grandparents." They turned on their feet and cracked out of the living room.

Her feet slammed for the second time in a few minutes against the pavement, but the scene in front of her was much different. In place of the cozy cottage with the white picket fence was a large, handsome house with white columns that lined the front porch. Just off to the side of the driveway was a rose trellis, the vines that curled up the stained wood were dead for the season.

Her heart thumping against her chest, she lurched forward, following Remus up the narrow driveway to the front porch. She was able to see into the front window, where a Christmas tree twice the size of hers at home sat twinkling toward the street. She spotted marble floors lying in perfect rows just underneath the base.

Remus rapped on the door. There was a muffled commotion on the other side before it was pulled open to reveal an older witch. She was beautiful, her blonde hair pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head. It was streaked with white, though subtly, and a pearl necklace donned her thin neck. There was one thing that Lavender did notice right away…bright, brown eyes. The same color and shape as her own.

"Remus," the woman exclaimed, stepping out of the home to kiss him on each cheek, "I was so very surprised by your owl, I never thought I would hear from you again after the funeral-" She stopped abruptly, the blood draining from her face as she took a step back, finally spotting Lavender over his shoulder.

Remus, who seemed quite pleased with himself, reached to Lavender and pushed her forward gently. "Marg," he started with a small smile, "I have someone I think you would be interested in meeting."

The woman grabbed onto the doorframe, leaning heavily against it as she looked upon Lavender in shock. "Ral-Ralph," she managed to croak out, "send for Daniel. Straight away."

"What? Why?" a man grunted from the sitting room. Lavender heard him get up from his seat, setting what sounded like the newspaper down onto the side table. When he came into view, she was surprised to see a tall, burly man with a thick mustache. His eyeglasses were perched on the end of his nose, which he looked over to survey the situation at his front door. "Hal-Haley?" he stopped in his tracks, his jaw going slack. He took a few steps forward, his arms hanging at his sides.

"This is Lavender," Remus interjected, his hand on Lavender's shoulder. "Lavender Brown." He paused for a moment to let it sink in. "You would probably know her better as Nora Black. Haley and Sirius's daughter."

The woman let out a squeak before lunging forward, taking Lavender by surprise, and wrapping her arms around Lavender's neck. She was thrown back a few steps as the woman began to sob into the crook of her neck. She looked up, putting Lavender's face lovingly in between her hands. "We-we thought you d-died," she choked out, shaking her head as if trying to wake herself from a dream, "we-we put a t-tombstone n-next to your m-mother's in the g-graveyard."

The man standing just inside the marble-lined entry way had put his hand over his mouth, still in shock.

"Please, please come in, out of the cold. Remus, how did you find her? Why wasn't she brought to us after Haley's death?" she beckoned the both of them in, taking hold of Lavender's hand and steering her toward the sitting room. She sat down on the French-inspired couch and Lavender followed her lead. "Ralph, Ralph darling. Get the kettle of tea out of the kitchen. I just put it on. Remus, do have a seat, please." She turned to Lavender, their hands still clutched tightly together. "My, you look just like my Haley," she breathed out, raking her gaze over Lavender's features. "I see some Sirius too; he was such a handsome boy."

Ralph returned with the kettle sitting on a serving tray with four delicate tea cups. His hands were shaking, the china rattled against the silver of the tray.

"Dumbledore told me in her third year at Hogwarts," he finally answered her question, taking a seat on the other side of Lavender, "I taught there for a year. He felt as though, especially with Haley dying at the hands of death eaters, it would be safer to place her with a separate family entirely."

Ralph held out a steaming cup of tea, his hand still shaking. Lavender untangled her hand from Marg (Mrs. Brams? Grandmother?) and reached out, taking the cup with a small smile. Marg turned to her, studying her features once again. "Tell us about yourself. Seventh year at Hogwarts already, my, does time fly. What-erm-what do you like to do? What are you studying?"

Lavender shrugged a shoulder softly, taking a sip of her tea. It was uncomfortable being the center of attention, especially when she wasn't expecting to be one. "Well, uh, I'm studying charms, transfiguration, divination, and arithmancy. I-erm-like to spend time with friends, watch quidditch matches…" She trailed off, not quite sure what to say next. It all sounded so lame to her.

"Arithmancy," Marg sucked in, beaming down at her, "that was one of your mother's favorite subjects."

"My mother," Lavender said suddenly, turning her head to look at Marg with a questioning expression. "What was she like? To you, I mean. I, I…I don't remember her."

Marg and Ralph looked at each other, memories flitting through their minds. Marg opened and closed her mouth a few times before answering. "She was kind and thoughtful," she responded, shaking her head slowly, "Smart. Beautiful. She was the only student at Hogwarts in ten years to be offered a position in the Law program at the French Ministry of Magic. She declined it, ended up working at a bar in Diagon Alley to stay with Sirius, who was accepted into auror school. That-erm-put a rift in our relationship with her." She clamped up, looking out of the corner of her eye at Ralph, whose cheeks had started to redden.

"That was-erm-that was my fault," he stuttered out, placing his forehead into his hands, "I-I was so consumed by what I thought she lost. Made myself believe that she was a disappointment, because she had chosen something else." He took a dep breath. "It wasn't until she died that I realized my m-m-mistake." His lip had started to tremble. "I blame myself for her death, you know. M-maybe if she w-would have thought of us as an o-option after Sirius was sent to A-Azkaban…" He mumbled incoherently, shaking his head again, but didn't go on.

Lavender understood immediately. The pain so clear on their faces. She squeezed Marg's hand, hopeful that she could begin a new relationship with them. Possibly starting to fill the hole that had been left in their hearts too.


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi everyone! Nothing new to report from me.  
As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

The train ride returning to Hogwarts after the Christmas holiday seemed to fly by. Ginny, Parvati, and Lavender sat in the compartment, surrounded by piles of candy and snacks, chatting about what had happened over the break.

The two girls had just the right reaction to Lavender's news of finding out she was the daughter of Haley and Sirius. Ginny clapped a hand over her mouth and gasped. Parvati had screamed.

"Merlin!" Lavender laughed, swatting at her out of fright, "don't scare me like that! You're going to draw attention." She dropped her voice to almost a whisper. "Besides, this isn't something that is supposed to get out. Remus wanted things to stay on the down low as much as possible. With the second war ongoing and me…supposedly being dead…" She trailed of, shaking her head. "I just mean that he doesn't want a lot of people to know."

She trusted Parvati, and surprisingly now Ginny, more than anything in the world. She knew that it wasn't going to get out as long as just the three of them knew.

"How did you parents take it?" Ginny asked, lowering her hand and drawing her hair back into a ponytail at the base of her neck. "With you knowing and all."

Lavender shrugged her shoulders, taking a bite of out a cauldron cake. "Dad took it pretty well. Answered all my questions, sent me to Remus for things I didn't understand. Mum on the other hand." She rolled her eyes. "Let's just say the household has been tense."

It was true. Her mother, mostly of hurt and anger, had shut herself in her room for the majority of Lavender's winter break. "She'll come around," her dad said gently, bumping her in the shoulder with a smile, but Lavender wasn't quite so sure.

"Anyways," she went on with a shake of her head, "I spent most of my break with Remus and his wife Tonks. Saw Haley's parents- erm, I mean- my grandparents, a couple of times." She leaned into her travel sack to take out a coin purse that was full to bursting. "Evidently they're loaded!" The three girls laughed. "They wanted me to buy something nice for myself. Seventeen years' worth of something nice, I guess!"

Ginny placed her chin into the palm of her hand, sighing contently. "I just can't believe…when Sirius told me…" She stopped. "My mum and dad almost didn't let me come back this term. Too many killings, too many kidnappings. I had to convince them. Figured the safest place now is STILL Hogwarts, despite Dumbledore being gone. I mean, You-Know-Who isn't going to touch any purebloods."

Parvati rolled her eyes. "Unless your Neville," she placed a finger on her chin in thought, "you know, or Seamus, now that I think about he. He causes enough chaos, they'll catch on eventually."

Lavender's heart jumped at the sound of Seamus's name. He hadn't tried to contact her since last term was over and she returned the gesture. It was the longest they had gone without speaking to each other, including when she "dated" Ron Weasley.

Ginny, who had noticed the look on Lavender's face after the mention of the Irish boy, piped up. "You should talk to him. Tell him how you feel! He's in a compartment down the corridor with Neville and the Creevey brothers."

Lavender shrugged her shoulders, making a noncommittal noise at the back of her throat. She reached over to pick up a second cauldron cake, but Parvati slammed her hand onto the snacks, pulling the pile toward her, glaring at her best friend. "Go. Tell him how you feel. You look miserable."

"Maybe I look miserable, because my parents aren't my real parents and my real parents are dead," she shot back, slumping back into her seat, "and the love of my life hates me, because I thought getting involved with someone in the middle of a WAR was a bad idea." Parvati stood out of her seat and placed a hand under Lavender's arm, hoisting her to her feet. "OY! What do you think you're doing?"

The Indian girl pointed out of the compartment firmly, stamping her foot in frustration. "You might not have any control over the circumstances revolving your family," she started, throwing open the glass door to the compartment, "but dammit, you can control this." She placed a hand on Lavender's back and shoved her out into the corridor. "And don't come back until you've talked to him!"

Lavender stuck her tongue out at the two girls, who merely wriggled their fingers in her direction. She debated plopping down on the floor of the corridor, refusing to move until the train reached Hogsmeade, but she knew better than to tempt Ginny with a bat-bogey hex.

Deep down, she knew the two were right. She missed Seamus. She missed his companionship, his friendship, and his ability to make her laugh. She sucked in a deep breath and started down the corridor, peeking into each compartment as she went. She stopped halfway down the train, her stomach dropping to her feet as she spotted Seamus playing Exploding Snap with Neville, who had his tongue between his teeth in concentration.

She tapped on the glass before slowly opening the door, sticking her head into the compartment. "Erm-hi," she said softly, leaning into the threshold, "Seamus, can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Anythin' you need to say to me," he started, his Irish brogue biting, "you can say in fron' of everyone here."

Maybe it was the tone he had decided to take. Maybe it was the stress of the break, finding out all the information that she had. Maybe it was the pain of her mother barely being able to look her in the eye. Perhaps it was a combination of all three. Rage boiled up inside her, racing through her veins. Before she knew it, she had drawn her wand and was pointing it at the blonde boy in front of her.

"I said," she seethed, her teeth clenched tightly together as she struggled to maintain her composure, "that I wanted to speak with you for a moment. Now. Get. Out. Here."

Seamus, despite his lack of interest in friendship for the last few weeks, knew better than to ignore Lavender when she had her wand drawn at him. Just in time for the stack of cards to explode, singeing the hem of his shirt and scorching a hole into his jeans, he stood up and followed her noisily out of the compartment, slamming the door behind him.

"What is wrong with yeh?" he fired at her, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at her as if she had personally threatened to sick You-Know-Who on him. "You don say anythin' to me for WEEKS and now-?"

"Oh bugger off," Lavender cut in, pocketing her wand and crossing her arms over her chest. "I've TRIED to talk to you! I just don't understand why you're being such a-"

"SUCH A WHAT?" Seamus roared back, flinging his hands into the air.

"SUCH A TOE RAG!" she shot back, digging her pointer finger into his chest. She could feel her cheeks burning red with rage, tears threatening to fall from the corners of her eyes. She swiped at them before they had the chance to drip onto her cheeks. "I just said that I didn't think it was the right time, not that I didn't love you."

He breathed heavy for a moment, clearly trying to work through what she had just said. "Excuse me…what?"

Lavender collapsed against the wall, partly in exhaustion, partly to be dramatic. "I said that I just didn't think it was the right time, not that I didn't love you."

He looked at her for a moment, his breath calming. "You love me?"

"Of course I love you," she sneered, nastily furrowing her brows as if she didn't understand why he couldn't get it through his head, "I've loved you since third year, for Merlin's sake."

"But, I thought…you said…the war…an excuse," he managed to chop out, boggling his words into an incoherent sentence.

"Seamus, there's a lot going on right now that I don't want to talk about," she said softly, shifting from one foot to the other, "that's all I meant. Between the war and the DA and-" She stopped herself before spilling the beans about her family. She would tell him one day, but it was still too raw. "I love you, I mean, I really LOVE you. I just don't want to enter into something right now. Can you understand that?"

Seamus paused for a moment before lurching forward, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her tightly to his chest. Lavender closed her eyes, allowing the tears to leak out of her eyes for the first time in weeks. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "So we wait," he said gently, still holding her a tightly as he could, "I happen to think you're worth waiting for."

Lavender smiled, tucking her head into his shoulder. It was the first time in so long that she felt at home with herself.


	18. Chapter 18

**Here we go! Chapter 18. Nothing new here…again.**

 **As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

"So I'm thinking we should work on Patronuses next," Neville was saying, flipping through a book for Defense Against the Dark Arts he had found tucked into the bowels of the library. It was one of the only ones, if not THE only one, remaining that referred to teaching defensive spells. Most of them had been replaced with books specific to learning about the Dark Arts themselves. "Lavender? Laaaaavender?" He poked her, making her jump in her seat.

"Huh-what?" she asked, her jaw slacked as she turned to look at Neville, who was seated in the armchair next to her. "I'm sorry, Neville. What were you saying?"

He gave her a funny look before responding. "Patronuses. For the DA. Next meeting."

"Oh! Oh yeah-erm- that sounds great. I think they're advancing swimmingly. Seems like they're ready for a challenge."

Truth be told, Lavender wasn't remotely concerned with how the next DA meeting went. She hadn't thought about Hogwarts once since the family news broke. She had been consumed with other things though- as in, who was she? How did she fit in a world that doesn't know she exists? How does she go about figuring out everything she needs to know?

She tapped her quill against the side of the table, her mind flitting again before Neville shook her shoulder, snapping her out of it one more time.

"You seem elsewhere," he said, worry laced through his tone, "are you- are you thinking of backing out of the DA?" He dropped his voice, glancing around the common room. Lavender thought it was a silly gesture. Everyone in Gryffindor over the age of 13 was in the DA. "I know it's gotten quite dangerous. With Luna being gone now and-"

Lavender shook her head, leaning forward as she clasped her hand around his forearm. "Neville! No!" she stammered, "don't think that at all. I just…I just…it was an odd holiday break." She had an idea, something she knew Remus would be against, but she could trust Neville immensely. "I have something for you."

She let go of his arm, reaching into the book bag that lay at her feet, pulling out the old, leather cased photo album that she had perpetually carried around with her. She handed it to Neville, swallowing hard. "I-erm-I found out my parents aren't quite who I thought they were," she whispered, Neville having to lean forward in order to hear her. "I thought you would be interested in what has been keeping me so scatterbrained these last few weeks."

Neville took the photo album with a furrowed brow, setting it carefully in his lap. He opened it, his eyes widening as he recognized the people in the pictures. "That's-that's my mum!" he cried out, a smile breaking on his face as he turned the pages, "and my dad. I recognize Harry's parents too." He paused, squinting slightly as he focused on the others. "Is that- is that Sirius Black?"

Lavender merely nodded, waiting for him to put the pieces together.

"I'm not quite sure who that woman is…" he trailed off, looking at her with wide eyes.

"Her name was Haley Brams," Lavender answered slowly, as Neville continued to turn the pages, getting into the wedding photos from Lily and James. "She was my mother."

Neville stopped, his hand hovering over the corner of a page. "Your mother?" he asked slowly, turning to look at her once more. "Your mother? She looks nothing like your…" He paused, his mind turning over. "This is your REAL mother? Like the woman who birthed you?"

"Yes."

He looked at the pictures again, catching his gaze on one particular picture with Sirius's arms wrapped tightly around Haley's waist, her blonde curls pinned delicately on the back of her head. They were smiling widely at the camera. Every so often, she would turn to look over her shoulder and give him a kiss on the cheek. "So…that does that mean you're the daughter of Sirius Black?" he asked in a hushed voice, his jaw going slack.

She nodded again, her own eyes wide. She had been needing to do that lately- widen them to dry out the tears every time she thought about Sirius and Haley.

"H-how is that even possible?" he said, shutting the photo album when he got to the end, "I didn't even know he HAD-"

"Hardly anyone knew," she interjected, taking the book from his outstretched hands and tucking it back in her book bag. "Legally, I'm supposed to be dead. My mother, Haley, she had Dumbledore place me in a wizarding home for protection. No one ever found out." She grabbed onto a stack of photos she had been shuffling around the bag for.

Pulling them out, she handed them over to Neville with shaking hands. "I pulled these ones out," she began again, "they're for you. They're of your mother and father after they graduated from school. Pictures with you too." She paused to sigh. "Remus, Professor Lupin, he told me what happened to your parents. I think, if it were up to everyone, we would have been great childhood friends." She leaned forward to clasp her hand around Neville's forearm again. "They didn't suffer for nothing. We'll get through this. Together."

Neville took the photos from her, blinking back the tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes. "I think," he said sadly, a tear dripping onto his cheek, "this will be my best Christmas present yet."

….

The swing of school was back in full force, many of the professors assigning homework by the load, merely to keep students like Seamus and Neville out of trouble. They managed to pass on their DA responsibilities to Ginny, Terry Boot, and other sixth year students, who had a ball running the halls at night and setting off fireworks in various places along the grounds.

They were much better at being subtle than Seamus, so it had been comical to see the Carrows rustling around the castle in an attempt to find the perpetrators. It hadn't gone as planned. Lavender had caught Ginny sneaking back into the common room in the wee hours of the night, a grin on her freckled face and her hands stained with a charcoal black substance.

Dark Arts had become the worst subject to attend, with Amycus teaching nothing but the unforgiveable curses to the seventh years. If she was hoping to turn the class into a mini You-Know-Who army, she was sorely mistaken.

Most students were heavy participants in the DA, spending much of their time during Amycus's rants on muggleborns and unjust laws regarding magical creatures with their wands under their desks, practicing the wand movements for the different charms and jinxes. Amycus, who was very invested in the Slytherin students, was none the wiser.

Before one particular class toward the end of January, Lavender was relaxing against the wall in the corridor, chatting with Parvati and Padma. The door flung open, the wood cracking loudly against the stone, per usual. Just as Lavender was getting ready to heave herself toward the threshold of the classroom, Amycus burst out, her wand in the air.

"With me," she said shortly, pointing her wand toward the end of the corridor. She marched on, not looking back to see if the class was following her. Lavender and Parvati looked at each other, shrugging, as they hitched their bags higher onto their shoulders and followed the Slytherins.

She led them down a few flights of stairs and to the bottom of the staircase that donned the landing of the castle before she stopped to speak to them. "We're going to have some fun today," she said with a nasty smile as she pulled open the thick front door, a burst of cold, winter air rushed in.

Lavender's stomach dropped to her feet for a couple of reasons. First, if she had known she was going to be outside, she would have grabbed her cloak. Second, anything that made Amycus smile like that couldn't have been good news. The Slytherins chatted excitedly amongst themselves as they trampled into the thick snow.

Padma pulled out her wand, sending Parvati and Lavender looks of tense trepidation, before melting the snow into a path with a successful warming charm. The ground was still frozen beneath their feet, but at least they weren't fighting the foot-thick snow that had fallen during the holidays.

Amycus turned toward the path that led to Hagrid's hut, the rest of the class following her slowly, afraid of slipping into the lake at the base of the hill. She stopped just short of the paddock at the edge of the forest, where Lavender saw the above-ground burrow filled with the Mooncalves they had been studying in Care for Magical Creatures.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lavender saw Padma and Parvati glance at each other.

Amycus spun around, a malicious glint in her eyes. "Today, we're going to having a more…practical lesson." She hurdled over the paddock fence, reaching into the burrow and grabbed a Mooncalf around the neck. Lavender heard its terrified squeals as she pulled it out, throwing it on the ground at her feet. It was barely tall enough to clear the snow drift.

She pulled out her wand, pointing it quickly at the Mooncalf and yelled "AVADA KEDAVRA!" A brilliant flash of green light emitted from her wand, then the Mooncalf lay dead in the snow.

Cries rose up from the crowd of seventh years as Crabbe and Goyle laughed, high fiving each other as they peered over the fence toward the dead creature. Amycus kicked it aside and it landed at the base of the burrow with a sickening thud.

Lavender felt a lump swell in her throat as she looked at the professor with a hateful gaze. Amycus reached into the burrow once again, grasping hold of a second Mooncalf. It tried to grip the sides of the tunnels as she pulled it out, its squeals louder than the one before it. Lavender had a nasty feeling it somehow knew what was coming.

"OY!" a voice yelled over the creaking of the trees from the Forbidden Forest. "WHAT ARE YE DOIN?'" Hagrid had thrown open his cabin door, drawn to the racket the mooncalf squeals were making.

"Oh, good," Amycus greeted him with a snarled smile. She tossed the small Mooncalf over to Goyle, who threw it on the ground at his feet. "You're here to see the show!" Hagrid watched in horror as Goyle took out his wand and attempted to perform the killing curse. The mooncalf let out a squeal of pain as the curse hit it.

"STOP!" Hagrid roared, taking a few menacing steps toward Amycus, who drew out her wand and pointed at the Care of Magical Creatures professor.

"Not another step, you disgusting half-breed," she sneered, gesturing for Goyle to try again. He laughed with glee as he pointed his wand at the Mooncalf once again. It looked up at him with sad eyes, the failed curse having drained it of its energy.

As he opened his mouth to repeat the curse, his wand shot out of his hand. Much to Lavender's surprise, her own wand was held at chest height and was pointed directly at Goyle. "No," she said shortly, not quite realizing how she had gotten there. "this is outrageous." She hurried forward, scooping the creature up into her arms, cradling it toward her chest. It cooed gratefully at her.

"You stupid girl," Amycus growled, turning her wand toward Lavender, who ducked her head in an effort to protect herself. There was a crunch of snow and a shift of shadows as she picked up her head to peek out of squinted eyes. Seamus, Parvati, and Neville were standing in front of her, their wands raised at Amycus and the Slytherins. "You stupid, ungrateful-" She had slashed her wand through the air, aiming at all four students at once, but Hagrid had leaped in front of them, taking the curse in its entirety.

His thick, half-giant skin repelled it easily as he took a step toward Amycus, grabbing her by the front of her robes and lifting her off the ground. She had half a mind to appear frightened, struggling to lift her wand hand to point it at him once again. He threw her easily out of the paddock and she landed with a hard thud in the path Padma had cleared of snow.

"Get away from me creatures," he growled, taking another step toward her. She scooted backward, mud dragging along her robes. "And don't ye ever point yer wand at the students again."

"You'll pay for this, giant," she hissed, scrambling toward her feet and shoving her wand into the pockets of her now dirty robes. She stomped away, her shoes squelching in the mud as she made her way back toward the castle, the Slytherin students in tow.


	19. Chapter 19

**Here we are! Chapter 19! About 10 chapters left…including the epilogue! So crazy! I have about 3 chapters after this one written, so look for a new update in a couple of days. I'll be working on finishing up this series and THEN I'll be working on outlining In the Name of Being Honest from Sirius's point of view. Just the schooling part though. Quite a few people had requested I write that. If you have any other suggestions/any other pairings you want me to write about (even if it's a one shot), feel free to give me a shout! I love new ideas (and, of course, I will absolutely credit you for it).**

 **I think that's it for now! As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

"In line," Professor Flitwick called out in his squeaky tone as the bell rang, signifying the end of classes for the day. Lavender and Parvati looked at each other, rolling their eyes as they stuffed their notes and books into their bags and slung them over their shoulders.

Near the beginning of February, Professor Snape, in an effort to conform with the wishes of You-Know-Who, had made students walking from place to place in a line a mandatory action. Lavender figured it was just the start of propaganda geared toward the younger students, but many had small ways of being defiant.

Neville routinely walked a half of step to the left of the line, just enough to make the Carrows eyes' twitch, but not enough to warrant a punishment. Seamus would step on the heels of the person in front of him, making them trip over the hem of their robes. He would do this more often if that person was a Slytherin.

Lavender would sneak her wand out of her robes and point it toward Malfoy, rifling through spells to make his chair change color at rapid fire. The students behind him would have to stuff their fists in their mouths in order to keep from laughing as she smoothly turned his hair back to his natural, pale blonde as the professor escorting them turned around.

"Do you think with it being Valentine's Day there will be anything special for dinner tonight?" Parvati piped up as they entered the Great Hall, her face falling as she glanced around the bare stone walls.

Lavender snorted as they split off from the line of seventh years, letting her bag slid off her shoulder and land on the ground with a clunk. "Something tells me the Carrows aren't nearly as excited about Valentine's Day as Professor Lockhart was."

Parvati dropped onto the bench beside her, lowering her voice so only Lavender could hear. "Could you imagine Amycus or Alecto hiring a bunch of elves to dress up as cupids?"

The two girls glanced to the head table, where the siblings were seated on either side of Professor Snape with upturned noses, as if someone had put something particularly foul in front of them. They burst into a fit of giggles as Seamus and Neville dropped down in front of them.

"Another meeting tonight," Neville said in a hushed voice as he leaned over the table toward them. "I sent out a message already." Lavender spotted the coin Neville was tucking into the pocket of his robes.

"Are we going to have a Valentine's Day party?" Pavarti asked excitedly, clapping her hands together.

Neville sent her an odd expression, furrowing his brow. "I mean- I wasn't- erm-"

"Just ignore her," Lavender said with a roll of her eyes as Parvati swatted her on the arm. She leaned forward to dig the serving spoon into a bowl of mashed potatoes, plopping them quickly onto the plate in front of her. "She has this impression that we all want to celebrate Valentine's Day despite everything that's going on in this world."

"I just think," she stated impatiently, stealing the serving spoon from Lavender and digging her own potatoes out of the bowl, "that the more we focus on things that make us happy, the better we will feel about everything going on." She paused to shovel a fork full of potatoes into her mouth. "And holidays make me happy."

Neville grinned as he put a piece of chicken onto his own plate. He had been happy in the past few weeks, more than he had been since the beginning of the year, because members of the DA were finding solace in the meetings. Since Luna had been taken off the train at the end of last term, more and more students requested twice a week meetings, then three times a week meetings. It was now up to between four and five a week, an hour here and there after meals.

It kept them out of trouble and gave them something to look forward to.

"So are we going right from dinner to the DA meeting, then?" Seamus asked, taking a large swig of pumpkin juice. "Because I'm going to leave early to drop my bag off in the common room before, if that's the case. I'm tired of hauling these books around all damn day."

Lavender giggled again, raising her goblet into the air. "Here, here," she said importantly and Seamus winked at her.

Neville shook his head. "No, no. I set the meeting for 8. I…I'm behind on Herbology homework," he replied with flushed cheeks. "Professor Sprout is going to have my head if I come to class with an essay three inches short like last week."

Dinner ended soon after and Lavender gathered up here things, dragging her book bag on the stone floor as they headed toward the staircase. Up the stairs to the seventh floor, muttering the password to the Fat Lady, she flung herself into an armchair in front of the fire, enjoying the feeling of sitting in a comfortable chair for the first time in seven hours.

"An hour," Lavender sighed as Parvati attempted to shove her Divination book into her hand, "just an hour break is all I need." She tossed the book to the floor. "I can't do it anymore! My brain is cooked."

" _All students must report to the Great Hall immediately,"_ a loud voice echoed into the common room, _"all students to not appear will be subjected to detention."_

Lavender heard Ginny groan at the entrance to the common room, having just clambered through the portrait hole herself. They caught each other's eye as Lavender thrust herself out of the armchair, stretching her arms over her head. "I guess we should get this over with," she said, slapping Neville on the back just as he took a bite out of a chocolate frog. He coughed, choking on the head as he swallowed it down, not expecting the sudden contact.

The five of them, Ginny tagging along to the seventh year group, made their way back down the seven flights of stairs to the Great Hall, where students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were glancing at each other with furrowed brows.

"What's going on?" Lavender heard Seamus mutter to Ernie MacMillian. Ernie, who held himself to high standards when it came to information passed down from the professors, merely shook his head as they crossed the threshold.

The four house tables, that only twenty minutes ago were set up for dinner, had been pushed against the far walls. Lines of students had already begun to form, edging from the platform where the head table was sitting. Lavender's heart began to thud nervously against her chest. The last time the Great Hall was set up like this, Ginny, Luna, and Neville were in trouble for attempting to break into Professor Snape's office.

Lavender glanced over to Parvati, who was playing with the braid that was hanging down her back. They exchanged heavy looks, thinking the same thing.

Once the hall was filled up, the last minute Slytherin stragglers sauntering in at the last moment, Alecto Carrow shut the doors with a quick snap of her wand.

"It has come to our attention," Snape began, pacing the platform in front of the silent students, "that a resistance group has been formed under the nose of You-Know-Who-"

"What nose?" a fifth year Ravenclaw sniggered behind Lavender. He and his friend succumbed to fits of laughter. Lavender, whose heart was beating erratically now at the mention of the DA, didn't find anything remotely funny about the comment.

"I want to show what happens to members of resistance groups," he went on slowly, gesturing for someone to come forward. Lavender stood on the tips of her toes, glancing over the heads of the second year Hufflepuffs in front of her.

Amycus, his hand clutched tightly around the arm of a student, climbed the steps up the platform before throwing the student onto the floor in front of him. Whispers jetted around the students, everyone turning to face their neighbors.

"Michael-"

"It's Michael CORNER-"

"That sixth year Ravenclaw?"

"Michael Corner?"

Lavender's heart sank to her feet as she closed her eyes.

"SILENCE!" Amycus yelled to the crowd, the students immediately clamping their lips shut. Professor McGonagall was shifting uncomfortably on her feet, exchanging knowing glances with Professor Flitwick.

"This young man," Snape went on, gesturing toward the floor with disgust, "was caught attempting to free first years from the dungeons, who were in detention for missing Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Neville gulped, his face flushing quickly as Michael Corner struggled to his feet, using the head table as a crutch. His right eye was already bruised, beginning to swell magnificently.

"Crucio!" Alecto yelled from the front of the crowd of students, her wand pointed at Michael. He let out a scream so terrible that it pierced Lavender, sending a shiver her spine.

"What on earth!" McGonagall hustled to the front of the hall, her mouth set in a thin line. "We do not use ANY unforgivable curses on students, we don't-"

"STUPEFY!" Amycus pointed his wand at her, which she blocked easily with a flick of her own wand.

"Crucio!" Alecto said again, sending Michael into another fit of pain, his arms contorting unnaturally around his back. Lavender had to close her eyes, tears gathering into their corners.

"Professor Snape-" McGonagall pleaded, blocking another curse that Amycus sent her way, "I implore you stop this immediately. These are students-"

"Who will pay the consequences of their actions," Snape retorted slowly, turning his back on her.

"Coward," she spat out, Lavender shocked with how unlike the professor it was, "you horrible, evil-" She paused to block another jinx, this one imbedding into the stone wall, where dust flew from the chunk that fell to the floor.

"What do you have to say for yourself, boy?" Amycus growled as Alecto laughed shrilly, finally letting up on the cruciatus curse.

Michael panted for a moment, clutching his sides as he fell to his knees. Looking up at the professors, pain flitting in his eyes, he let out a defiant smirk. "Dumbledore's Army." He raised a clutched fist into the air before passing out.

The students erupted. Cheers and chants filled the hall as Lavender swelled with pride. She punched a fist into the air, whooping alongside Neville and Ginny, who had begun to swing her Gryffindor scarf over her head like a lasso.

"SILENCE!" Professor Snape shrieked, his arms extending to the sides through his robes, giving him a battier appearance than usual. "If I EVER find who the ringleader for this little group is-" but his words were drowned out once again by another round of whoops and cheers.

"That's the last thing he needed to do," Seamus said with a grin, throwing an arm over Lavender's shoulders, "give the DA even MORE exposure."

It had been months since they had heard from Luna. Kidnappings and murders littered the Daily Prophet. But Lavender's heart felt as if it had grown three sizes in that moment. There was a resistance. There was hope. It was something to hold onto.


	20. Chapter 20

**Hello everyone! So sorry it's been a minute. Life happens, ya know? Anyways, excited to be posting again. Nothing new here, just writing away!**

 **As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

As far as Lavender was concerned, spring break could not come soon enough. Between the increase in DA meetings since Michael Corner was tortured in front of the school and the professors loading on the school work as the NEWT exams approached, Lavender was having a hard time finding time for anything else.

She was thinking spring break would allow her some downtime, but the professors had packed on so much extra work just as the first half of the second term came to close that she thought she would have a hard time getting it done at all.

Sitting on the floor of Remus Lupin's cottage, she was playing with baby Teddy, who was waving around a toy rattle, his hair cycling between blue and red at random intervals.

"And they just cast the cruciatus curse?" Tonks asked, shaking her head as she grabbed Teddy and set him on her lap, getting ready to give him a bottle. He whined at first, upset that he had dropped his toy in transit, but he grabbed at the bottle as soon as he saw it, sucking on it happily.

Lavender nodded her head, leaning back against the couch. "Just…just like that. It was awful." She shuddered, remembering the screams Michael had made when the curse hit him.

Remus shook his head slowly, sipping on a cup of tea as he stoked the fire in the hearth. "Hogwarts sure has changed since I went to school there."

"Hogwarts sure has changed and I STILL go there," Lavender said bitterly, gazing at a burn in the shabby rug that sat in front of the fireplace. She had been spending much of the extra time she had with Remus and Tonks, opting to learn more about her parents and their friends rather than tie up loose ends with her essays. "Do you think it'll get better?" She paused to sigh, wrapping her arms around her knees. "I just can't help, but think about those first years who haven't had the TRUE Hogwarts experience yet."

Remus sighed, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand. "Hope is dwindling in the Order," he said slowly, watching his wife feed their son, "it's much like it was last time. It's just…" he trailed off as Lavender looked at him. "We have less people than we had before." He chuckled humorlessly. "And we didn't have too many people before."

Tonks nodded her head, absentmindedly rubbing the back of her son.

"But enough about that," Remus said suddenly, turning to look at Lavender, "how are you holding up with all this information that has been thrown at you the last couple of months?"

Lavender opened her mouth to respond with a quick "fine," but found that she couldn't. She shrugged her shoulders, tightening her grip on her knees. "I…I feel both whole and broken," she started, "I find myself wondering who I'm supposed to be. If I'm the same person that Lavender is or if I'm supposed to be the same person that Nora is." She sighed. "I wonder if I would be a different person had I been raised by Sirius and Haley rather than my parents."

Remus nodded his head, setting his empty mug on the table next to him. "I would find it extremely unnerving had you not had any of these thoughts," he replied, Tonks smiling at her as Teddy continued to take his bottle, "you've gone from thinking you're Lavender Brown to learning you're Nora Black in a matter of months. I think it's important to know that Lavender and Nora are still the same person, no matter what you may think now. YOU haven't changed."

"Do you think my mother would have been upset learning that I was involved in Dumbledore's Army like I am now?" she pondered out loud, moving onto the next thought that had been flitting through her mind. "I've been thinking about what you said over Christmas break. About how she had been hesitant about being in the Order."

Remus smiled broadly. "Stark raving mad, I dare say," he said with a laugh, leaning back into his seat with ease, "but Sirius would have been overjoyed. Knowing him the way that I did, he would have snuck into the castle himself to be involved in this Dumbledore's Army if he could."

The three of them laughed as Lavender stood up from the floor and collapsed onto the couch. "I think I would like to be in the Order when I graduate," she said offhand. Remus and Tonks exchanged glances as Tonks shifted Teddy in her lap, his eyes getting sleepy as his bottle dwindled.

"Lavender, Dora and I have been talking," Remus started, his eyes fixed intensely on Lavender, "well, it's been in the talks for a few months now-"

"Out with it, darling," Tonks said with a smile as Teddy finally dozed off, his small hands loosening their firm grip on the bottle. Remus smiled back at her.

"What I'm meaning to say is that…we were quite hoping that you would agree to being Teddy's godmother. To be in his life, to-to take care of him if anything were to happen to us." He reached over and grabbed onto Tonks's hand, squeezing it lightly.

"We would be more than honored," Tonks said, turning her gaze toward Lavender, "you mean so much to both of us. You're family to me, you're family to Remus. We've already asked Harry to be his godfather. We-"

"Yes," Lavender replied excitedly, nearly leaping off the couch. "Yes, yes, Merlin." Her heart swelled with happiness as they beamed at her. "I-I couldn't even fathom…I would be so honored…" Her eyes filled with tears as she looked on at them.

There was a sharp knock on the door that interrupted the moment, Tonks and Lavender turning to Remus with furrowed brows. "Are you expecting anyone, darling?" Tonks asked as she stood from her seat, headed toward Teddy's bedroom to put him down for a nap. Remus shook his head in reply as he got up from his own seat, headed toward the door.

Lavender heard it crack open, the hinges squeaking. "Are you going to let me in, Remus?" a woman's voice exploded over the threshold, "or shall I stand out here in the cold all afternoon?" Remus let out a laugh as he opened the door further, allowing the woman to step into the home.

"Mary!" Tonks cried out as she entered the living room again, "what are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming back until the summertime from the United States?"

The woman, whom Lavender recognized to be Mary MacDonald, pulled her shoulder length brown hair into a ponytail at the base of her neck. She looked nearly identical to the pictures Lavender had seen of her from the photo album Remus gave her. Mary's hair was streaked with gray and her eyes had small wrinkles that creased when she smiled, but her long face and bright blue eyes were still young.

"Oh, my mother sent me an owl requesting I return for Easter," she replied, "for someone who is always looking forward to me returning to America, she sure wants me back often enough-" She stopped, spotting Lavender for the first time.

Lavender stood up, her hands wringing in front of her. "Erm-hi," she started awkwardly, shuffling her feet against the wooden floors of the living room.

Mary's face paled, her jaw slacked as she turned to look at Remus, who merely smiled at her. "This…this isn't…it can't be…I thought…" She swayed on the spot, stumbling over to the nearest chair and collapsing into it. "She died, Remus," Mary croaked, her head in her hands as she continued to stare at Lavender. "She died sixteen years ago."

"We only thought she had," he replied, setting a hand on her shoulder. "Mary, meet Nora, also known as Lavender. Lavender…"

She strode over, holding out her hand. Mary shook it softly, her jaw still slacked. "You…you could be her twin. Her eyes…her hair…" She stopped, surveying Lavender's features with wonder. "I see Sirius in there too. It's uncanny. How…HOW…"

"Haley put her into hiding merely days before she died," Remus explained, a smile now creeping on Mary's face as she shook her head.

"That TOERAG," Mary exclaimed, slapping her thighs as she let out an exuberant laugh. She stood so quickly from her seat that Lavender had to take a step back, but Mary wrapped her arms around the blonde so quickly that Lavender didn't have time to react. "Come here, you!" She sobbed lightly as she squeezed Lavender, who was trying to hug Mary back, but had become trapped. "I just…I never even thought…WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!" She rounded on Remus, slapping his arm playfully.

Remus and Tonks laughed as Teddy let out a squeal from the bedroom. "Dumbledore."

"He's a toerag too! Talk about taking a secret to the grave."

The four of them went quiet as Mary continued to survey Lavender, their hands interwoven tightly together. "Your mother was my best friend," she said quietly, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "she…she was the best person I've ever known."

"She was that for many people," Remus said softly, "Merlin willing, you'll be able to get to know Lavender just the same. She's quite alike Haley in many ways.

"AND!" Tonks piped up, a broad smile on her face, "she has just agreed to be Teddy's godmother."

Mary cheered, squeezing Lavender's hand tightly again as a flush creeped up her cheeks. "You'll be a wonderful godmother," she exclaimed, "Lily and James were your godparents…Merlin, they loved you. Lily spoiled you more than her own son, I think."

"And now I'll get the chance to carry on the legacy," Lavender said with a grin as the others chuckled.

"Teddy is a lucky boy," Mary replied, her grin still reaching her eyes. "You are all lucky to have found each other. I'm…I'm so happy that you're alive. I'll be returning to America soon, but please do keep in touch. I would like nothing more than to get to know you better."

Lavender realized, as she was becoming a member of the friend group her parents used to hold, that she would like nothing more as well.


	21. Chapter 21

**Hi everyone!  
Long time, no post. It's good to be back. If you saw my note on the In the Name of Being Honest storyboard, you'll know that I've been fighting a massive writer's block with this story. I don't want to put out material I'm not proud of, so I haven't published. But…I was able to write this chapter and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of it!**

 **I also have a new story that I'm in the process of writing. It's going to be so fun, so look out for that one in the next couple weeks!**

 **As always, read, review, and enjoy!**

"We've had three people leave the DA just this week," Neville said through gritted teeth, slamming his hand on the table they sat at. Lavender jumped slightly, surprised to see Neville speaking with such exasperation.

Coming back from Easter break was something of a shock. Michael Corner, who had been tortured by the Carrows for attempting to set a student free, resigned from any duties. He was followed by both Hannah Abbott and Maisy Reynolds within days of each other.

"We just…" Hannah had started, sighing quietly as she looked at Neville with pleading eyes. "Luna was kidnapped off the train. Michael was tortured. Ginny isn't even coming back!"

It was all true, even with Ginny. She had somehow gotten a message out to Neville over the break that she wasn't coming back to Hogwarts. It was discovered by the death eaters that Ron was, in fact, accompanying Harry in the mission he was on. She was going into hiding and would no longer be in contact. They hadn't heard anything since then.

"People are scared, Neville," Lavender said in a soothing tone, gripping his arm tightly as the bell signaling the start of classes rang out, "not everyone can be as brave as you." She stood from her seat at the table, swinging her bag over her shoulder. Neville looked only slightly mollified as he followed suit.

"But this IS life and death," Neville went on as they exited the library and climbed the stairs to attend the first Dark Arts class of the week. "I got a note from my gran. She's going into hiding. The death eaters tried to kidnap her to keep us quiet. Well, it's not going to work! We're the next generation! We're the ones that REALLY have to live with-"

"Neville," Lavender cut across him with a laugh as they entered the corridor, where a line of students had already gathered outside of the classroom, "I KNOW what you're trying to say. I'm just trying to explain why other people might not want to be a part of it!"

He went quiet for a moment as they approached Parvati and Seamus, mulling it over. "You aren't going to leave, are you?" he finally muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Lavender to hear him.

"Never," she said with another squeeze of his arm, "I have a feeling that my dad would disown me if tried to get out of it, anyways." He sent her a questioning look that she quickly shook off, mouthing the word 'later' as the door swung open, cracking hard against the stone wall behind it.

"In," Amycus snapped as the students began to troop over the threshold. Everyone seemed glum, excluding Crabbe and Goyle, who were gleeful with anticipation. Lavender took a seat at the back of the classroom, sharing a desk with Parvati as usual. She silently wondered if there was anything else the Carrows could really teach them, as they seemed to have gone over the same content for the past few months.

"As I'm sure most of ya are aware," he began, walking up and down the aisles with a penetrating gaze etched on his pudgy face, "there has been a sighting of Undesirable Number One."

The classroom broke out in whispers. Lavender's eyebrows shot high onto her forehead. She had the distinct feeling that You-Know-Who would be none too happy to hear that his minions were giving away information pertaining to the escape of Harry Potter.

"SILENCE!" he bellowed and the class stopped their murmurs immediately. He paused for another moment, stopping just behind Neville, who didn't turn around. "New orders have come directly from the Dark Lord pertaining to these…events." Lavender watched as he groped under his robes, clutching his wand. Parvati and Lavender did the same, Neville's back was still to Professor Carrow. "Students who deliberately go against the Dark Lord. This rebellion of Dumbledore's Army, so to say." Lavender saw the tops of Neville's ears begin to turn red.

Ernie MacMillan, who was seated in front of Lavender, shifted in his seat. She saw that he also had his wand out, clutching it tightly in his fist underneath the desk.

"The Dark Lord is willing to spill magical blood if it…trims the dead limbs off the tree." He pulled his wand from the innards of his robes, pointing it at the back of Neville's head.

"Expelliarmus!" Lavender cried out, hopping out of her seat as she sent the spell directly at the professor. In his shock, he jumped out of the way and Lavender's spell wedged itself into the desk next to Neville, sending shards of wood sailing across the room. "Neville! Run!"

"Stupefy!" Ernie yelled out as Amycus attempted to shoot a trip jinx at Neville, who had grabbed his bag and was trying to scramble from the classroom, but he stepped on a wooden shard and howled with pain- the splinter had gone straight through the sole of his shoe.

"Crucio!" a low voice from the front of the classroom growled and the red jet of light coming from Crabbe missed Parvati by inches.

"Tarantallegra!" Parvati shouted back, nailing Crabbe in the chest. His legs danced erratically as he continued to try and shoot off the cruciatus curse. The jets of light went in all directions, barely missing students as they flopped out of the seats and hit the stone floor.

"Ebublio!" Hannah Abbott called out as she pointed her wand at Crabbe from her perch on the floor. A giant bubble encased him, forcing him to stop attempting the curse, as it would only bounce off the inside of the bubble and hit him.

Draco Malfoy had gathered his own book bag and was finagling his way through the mess of flying jinxes, shards of wood, and bodies on the floor toward the classroom door. Neville gripped the back of his robes as he lurched forward, his foot bleeding profusely from the underside of his shoe.

"ENOUGH!" Amycus yelled out as he pointed his wand at Lavender. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Lavender ducked out of the way just in time. The curse embedded itself in the stone wall, showering the students closest with dust. Screams pierced the air following the professors use of the killing curse, making the scene even more chaotic. Lavender's heart beat frantically against her chest.

Students panicked, standing from their position on the floor, and ran toward the door, their heads covered with their book bag. Neville, who was limping heavily from the shard in his foot, picked up the pace as the swarm of students began to crowd him.

"Expelli- Parvati! Head him off!" Lavender shouted as Amycus began pushing through the students to get to Neville, his wand raised over their heads. Parvati impressively hopped over the desk, landing cat-like on her feet. Sticking out her right leg, she tripped Amycus, who flew forward and pitched into a desk, crumpling to the floor unmoving.

"Let's get out of here," Lavender hissed, pulling her bag off the floor and grabbing Parvati's upper arm, yanking her toward the door. "I can't imagine he's going to be too happy when he wakes up."

The two rush out of the room, following the bloody footprint that Neville trailed down the hallway. Cleaning it up along the way so the death eaters didn't have anything to follow, they stopped short of the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor.

Lavender placed a hand on the cold stone of the wall, closing her eyes and willing the door to appear. Nothing happened. She sighed in frustration as Parvati looked on with wide eyes.

"Do you think he's in there?" she asked, gesturing toward the door as she tightly clutched the strap of her bag.

Lavender shrugged a shoulder, taking a step back as she surveyed the wall once more. "I don't know." She sighed. "But his footprints stop here. Either he's in there or…" She trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence she had started.


End file.
